You're The Boss, Applesauce
by turnoffthelights
Summary: This story started out as a funny joke when I was told by David Bowie in a dream to write a Luce x Cam story about applesauce and murder. Then, it blossomed into something Jim Morrison could be proud of.
1. Chapter 1

**A/N:** Hello! Welcome to this silly little story. Where it begins, just to refresh anyone's memory, it's in the middle of Torment (canon-verse timeline) but in later chapters veers into AU territory, though still canon-compliant (mostly).

* * *

><p>"Um, where are we going?" Luce asked in an agitated voice as Cam veered down an unfamiliar road. She was trying her best to remain calm and aloof, but the fact of the matter was the Cam sort of scared her. He always had. When they first met she credited the uneasy feeling he gave her to the proverbial butterflies of a new crush, but maybe somehow she'd always been able to sense how dangerous he was. Even so, he had just sort of saved her life...allegedly. And he was sort of being nice. Well, as nice as he could be after all that had happened between them.<p>

"I can't take you back to Shoreline." he said coolly. "Not right now. It's not safe."

Luce scoffed. "I thought Shoreline was the safest place on Earth...or whatever. That's how Daniel made it seem, anyway. And you both keep telling me to stay inside like a good little girl and never leave the campus-"

Cam laughed at her remark causing her to momentarily lose focus. She'd never really heard him laugh before, not in a genuine funny-joke kind of way. More just in an evil, maniacal way. This way made her stomach twitch in a dumb way. Luckily, he filled her awkward pause with an explanation.

"Shoreline is safe for you, Luce. Don't get me wrong. But after what just happened..." he trailed off, fiddling with the knob on his truck's radio, "I just have a bad feeling, okay? We drew too much attention to ourselves just now."

"Somehow I feel like that's more your fault than mine." Luce retorted, recalling the brutality Cam had used against the Outcast. The memory of her bones snapping made Luce involuntarily shiver.

"You cold?" Cam asked, flicking the heater on high.

"Yeah." Luce lied automatically, not wanting to say anymore to Cam than she had to. He took another seemingly random turn. "Please tell me where we're going."

"My place." Cam answered like it was the most natural thing in the world.

"Your _place_?" Luce repeated failing to hide the sudden panic in her voice. Her heart-rate quickened in fear. She didn't truly believe Cam would hurt her, but being alone with him in an unknown place still frightened her. She wondered/hoped if by chance Daniel would swoop by the school, notice her inexplicable absence, and come to her rescue. Unlikely, but the thought set her mind at ease for the moment.

Cam just looked annoyed. "Where else would we go? We can't go back to the school right now, as I've said, do you have any secret locales in the area you're holding out on? If so, now's the time to enlighten me."

"You could just take me to Daniel. I'd be safe with him." Luce regretted the words the instant they'd escaped her mouth.

Cam's emerald eyes darted toward her, then quickly back to the road. "First of all," he said tightly. "I can't take you to Daniel. Literally can't. And second of all, you're safe with me. I wish you'd realize that." His voice softened at the last few words making Luce feel something dangerously close to guilt. But she didn't have anything to feel guilty about, she quickly reminded herself. Cam was evil, afterall, even if he was doing her a service tonight there must be some ulterior motive to his actions.

"Why can't you?" she asked softly, unsure what else to say.

"Because." Cam said slowing the vehicle as he turned down a steep road.

Luce sighed, kicking her legs up against the dashboard. "I'm getting really tired of everyone treating me like I'm an idiot."

Cam's dark brows knitted together in confusion. "Who's treating you like an idiot?"

"You!" Luce barked. "Daniel. Everyone. It's like everytime I think I get a little bit closer to understanding what's going on in my life there's someone in front of me telling me I'm not ready to know or that I can't handle it or that it's for my own good."

"It is for your own good." Cam replied evenly.

"Maybe," Luce said uncertainly. "But how would you feel? If everyone you cared about was keeping you in the dark about _everything_?"

Cam nodded slowly. "I see your point." He sighed, "Luce. It's not that anyone thinks you're an idiot, trust me. We all care about you. We just want you to be safe."

"Who's we?"

Cam shrugged. "Daniel, of course. Roland, Arriane, Gabbe..." he made a point to look at her again. "me."

Luce felt her cheeks flush slightly. She quickly looked out the window, watching streetlights blur as they drove.

"Even Molly." Cam chuckled, bumping Luce's knee with his knuckles.

Luce felt herself smile. "Now that I find hard to believe."

She looked at him suddenly, for the first time in what felt like forever, allowing herself to take in his undeniably handsome features. For a moment she felt like she could really talk to him, confide in him, like she had back at Sword & Cross, before her life got turned upside down and she wasn't really sure what to believe.

"So you really can't tell me anything?" she asked quietly.

Cam shifted uneasily. "What do you want to know?"

"Why can't I leave Shoreline ever? Why am I never allowed to do anything? Why can't Daniel see me? Why can-"

"Whoa whoa whoa." Cam laughed cutting her off. "Can I try to tackle these one at a time?"

Luce just stared at him impatiently.

"Oh," Cam said changing his tone abruptly, "Here we are."

Luce looked around curiously at the grassy landscape that surrounded her but didn't see anything that remotely resembled a residence. "And where is that exactly?"

"Home sweet home!" Cam whistled, getting out of the truck and walking around the front to open Luce's door for her. The gesture made her feel weird. "Why thank you sir." She quipped sarcastically.

"My pleasure, miss." Cam replied in the same mocking tone, even going so far as to take her hand as she hopped out of the vehicle.

"Come on," he said still holding her hand as he advanced into the darkness.

"Hey!" Luce jerked backward. "Where do you even live? Some creepy killer log cabin in the middle of the woods?"

Cam laughed again, that same hearty genuine laugh from before. Luce smiled in spite of herself, finding the sound to be infinitely pleasing.

"Not quite." Cam whispered, his green eyes lush with mischief. "Just follow me. It's a surprise."

* * *

><p>Luce wasn't sure whether to laugh or run away. "You're crazy." she finally breathed.<p>

Cam had lead her through a dense patch of wooded area until they came upon what appeared to be an abandoned boxcar. In the light of day it might have been a harmless hunk of metal but in the shadowy light of the moonlit forest, it was pretty damn creepy. A million different slasher movies rippled through Luce's mind. She continued to stare at Cam in disbelief. "No way I'm going in there."

"Oh, yes you are." Cam replied authoritatively. "Don't be so quick to judge." He trudged noisely through the tall grass to the other side of the boxcar, shielded from Luce's view.

"What are you doing?" she asked shakily.

She heard him chuckle. "Would you like me to narrate for you?" He called out through the darkness. "Okay: Cam walked, perfectly poised, up to his boxcar house, and took out his boxcar key, and opened his boxcar door." There was a loud, terrible scraping sound which Luce only assumed could be the massive doors being wrenched apart. Cam continued to narrate himself loudly, "He then entered the house, and then turned on the light, with poise." and with that, light flooded out from Cam's side of the scructure. Luce reluctantly trotted around to see. Sure enough, Cam was standing at the makeshift entrance to his "house" with a disgustingly satisfied smile on his face.

"Well?" he asked, gesturing behind him.

"Luce was unimpressed." Luce replied, playing along with Cam's narration. "She thought living in a boxcar was the dumbest thing she'd ever heard of. And also that Cam was weird."

"Cam was very troubled by this news." Cam pouted dramatically. "In fact legend has it that a single tear slid down his cheek-"

"Oh, stop it!" Luce said fighting back the urge to giggle.

Cam just grinned at her, obvious pleased with himself. "Come." he said, retreating into the "building". Luce rolled her eyes and followed him.

"Wow," she said as she tried to take in her new surroundings. It wasn't at all what she expected. Inside it just looked like a normal apartment room. To the far left was a small built-in kitchen with a sink and miniature refrigerator. In the center of the room was worn in looking black futon facing a decently sized television set.

"Look," Cam said strutting over to the right side of the room and opening what Luce hadn't even realized was a door until Cam was swinging it inward. "Working facilities."

"How did you do all this?" Luce asked a little awestruck.

"Oh sweet, simple-minded little Lucinda." Cam cooed walking over to her and taking her hands in his. "How did I _not_ do it?"

Luce yanked her hands away. "So remind me of why this place is oh so safe for me again?"

Cam shrugged. "It's not, really."

Luce stared at him wide eyed. "But you said!"

"I said Shoreline wasn't safe for you right now." He replied. "In all honestly, nowhere is. But I'm the only person that knows about this place. So it'll buy us some time for the Outcasts to get tired or bored for the evening, and then I'll take you back to Shoreline all safe and sound. Deal?"

"No." Luce said indignantly, even though she knew she didn't really have a choice. Just how long was Cam planning on holding her captive here anyway? She wondered. She crossed her arms over her chest like a child.

Cam sunk onto the futon lazily and smiled up at her. "Has anyone ever told you how cute you are when you're pissed?"

Luce felt her cheeks flushing again. "Um. no." she stammered uselessly.

"Glad I could be the first then." Cam's grin broke into a staggering smile. Luce held her ground.

"Maybe because you're the only one who manages to piss me off all the time."

Cam threw his head back and laughed at that, this being the third time Luce had made him laugh in the past hour. She wasn't sure why but she couldn't help but relish in it. It made her feel like she had some sort of special connection with him that no one else did.

"Babe, I take that as the highest compliment you could give me."

"I am not your babe." Luce said sternly. Now he really was pissing her off. "How long do I need to stay here?"

"Not sure." Cam said unwavering even from Luce's obvious disdain. He got up suddenly and walked over to the kitchen area of his living space. "Sit down." he commanded softly. "Might as well make yourself comfortable."

"I'd rather stand, thanks." Luce said a little more coldly than she'd intended to.

"So stubborn." Cam chided playfully as he rummaged through his mini fridge.

Luce's emotions were short circuiting. She was angry with Cam for forcing her to come out here, angry at herself for acting so bratty when maybe he was just trying to help, and angry for being angry when it was Cam she was dealing with, who was evil incarnate, right?

"Hey." Cam's silky voice scissored through her stream of consciousness. "Do you want some applesauce?"

Luce's mind sputtered. "_What_?"

"Do you want some damn applesauce?" Cam repeated in an offended tone. "You act like I just asked you if you wanted to pick up a knife and stab yourself."

Luce couldn't help but laugh. Daniel was always so serious about the situation that was at hand. It was nice to have someone who didn't mind making a joke every now and then, as inappropriate as they might be.

"Sure." She said finally, making her way over to the futon and tentatively sitting down.

"Aw yeah," Cam said pulling out two plastic packets of applesauce and joining Luce on the futon. "Now we're having fun."

Cam handed one of the plastic containers to Luce and tore his open excitedly, tossing the foil aside absentmindedly.

"Um." Luce said, "How about a spoon?"

"Spoon?" Cam asked like the word was unfamiliar to him.

"Yeah," Luce sighed sarcastically, "You know that little thing that you eat food with?"

Cam shook his head. "No spoons."

Luce rolled her eyes. "Then how am I supposed to eat this?"

"Like this." Cam said knocking his applesauce container against Luce's as if they were shot glasses, then tipping it directly into his mouth.

"Gross." Luce made a face, but she was laughing.

"Don't be such a prude." Cam taunted with a mouth full of applesauce. "I find it gives the applesauce a more satisfying flavor." he raised his eyebrows on the word _satisfying_.

"Whatever you say," Luce said ridding her own plastic container of its foil lid. "What do you want me to do with this?"

"Just throw it anywhere." Cam said nonchalantly, clearly more invested in enjoying his applesauce than the cleanliness of his home.

Luce placed the lid gingerly on the table in front of them. Hesitantly, she brought the container to her lips and took a sip.

Cam eyed her, an amused expression on his male model face. "You know what would go great with this?" He said devilishly licking his lips.

Luce raised an eyebrow." "I don't know...apples?"

"No girl," Cam shook his head, his green eyes narrowing. "Murder."

Luce stared at him in horror. "Haven't you had enough of that for one night?"

"Never," Cam said, dipping down under the futon to search for something frantically.

"What are you looking for?" Luce asked growing annoyed. "A knife to murder me with?"

Cam popped up with a remote control in his hand. "I'm offended, Luce. I'd never hurt you. How many times do I have to tell you that? I gave you applesauce and everything."

Luce smiled wryly. "Oh yeah, the old symbolic giving of the applesauce. How could I forget? You now have my unadulterated trust."

"Your sarcasm hurts my feelings." Cam pouted, joining her on the futon once more, a little too close for Luce's liking.

Cam pointed the remote at the televison to turn it on, and what looked like an old grainy episode of _Murder She Wrote _began to play.

"Wow," Luce rolled her eyes. "Are you serious right now?"

Cam ignored her and scooted closer. "If you get scared, you can jump into my arms, I won't be offended."

Luce scoffed. "That's very kind of you."

Cam smirked and relaxed against the back of the sofa bed, turning his attention to the televsion. "Ooh," he remarked. "This is a great episode."

Luce had to admit, she found his adoration for an old tv show kind of cute, but she had more important things on her mind. "Cam." she said evenly.

"Hmm?" he asked momentarily flicking his gaze toward her.

"I thought we might able to use this alone time for you to give me some of those answers you promised me, not watch Angela Lansbury ride a bike."

Cam gasped dramatically. "Do you have any idea how impressive that is for a woman her age?"

"_Cam_!" Luce grumbled exasperatedly. "Can you please be serious for 5 minutes?"

"5 minutes," Cam repated, turning to face Luce directly. "Okay. I can do that."

"Just tell me why it's so important that I stay on campus." Luce demanded softly. "I hate being treated like a child."

Cam sighed. "Because Shoreline is safe, Luce. That's really all I can say. Everytime you leave it's like you send up a big red flag to the Outcasts to let them know exactly where you are. If you want to go out and party with your little nephilim friends, okay. But running around town late at night by yourself is a no-no. Got it?"

"Yes, _daddy_." Luce mumbled, not appreciating his condescending tone. "That still doesn't explain the way Daniel's been treating me lately. Hot one second cold the next..."

Cam's voice turned bitter. "I think you and I both know if Grigori could spend every waking moment with you right now, that's what he'd be doing. Keeping you all to himself is his favorite thing to do."

"So why can't he?" Luce asked, blushing at Cam's obvious jealousy.

"Because," Cam spoke slowly, like he wasn't sure how to continue, "He sort of...promised he'd stay away from you...for an undisclosed amount of time. As did I. And as you can see, we're both staying pretty true to that promise."

"Oh," Luce said anger rising up inside her, "So it's okay for you two to run around and break the rules but I can't? What are you guys even playing at? Am I really just a game to you?"

Cam took her hand in his. "You are not a game." He said softly. "Not to me. Not to Daniel, either." His tone became serious. "You have no idea how much danger you're in right now. And if anything happened to you, I'd never forgive myself."

Luce sucked in her breath, daring to meet his intense gaze. "How much danger am I in, Cam?"

"Too much." he said solemnly. "I fear the Outcasts know where you are by now. Especially after the little stunt you pulled tonight."

It finally began to click in Luce's brain. She felt like an idiot. Why hadn't she just listened to Daniel in the first place? She placed her half-eaten applesauce on the table. "I feel a little sick."

In one fluid motion Cam stripped off his shirt and handed it to her. "Here, take my shirt. You can throw up in it."

The gesture was so random and silly, she found herself smiling in spite of everything. She sighed, balling up the shirt in her hands. "Is that offer to jump into your arms still on the table?"

Cam leaned in close to her, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear. "Always."

Luce realized she should probably feel more awkward that she was sitting here, alone, with a topless Cam, but somehow she didn't. "You're sweet." she said gently flicking him on the nose.

"I'm not usually." Cam argued softly, bringing his face inches from hers. "I guess you just bring out the worst in me."

"Guess so." Luce whispered, her heart beating rapidly. The closeness between them was making her head spin. She closed her eyes in hopes to regain some form of control over her emotions. She didn't have time to open them before Cam was kissing her. It was different from the last kiss they'd shared which at the time felt rehearsed and fake. This kiss was rough, passionate, and over as quickly as it has started.

"I'm sorry." Cam said, pulling away abruptly. He looked embarrassed. "I don't know what I was thinking...I just-"

"It's fine." Luce squeaked, blushing madly. "I mean it's not fine but I...just...don't worry about it."

Cam sighed heavily and looked away. "I hate the way things ended between us." he said after a long moment of silence. "I want us to be friends, again."

Luce was still reeling from the unexpected kiss. His words were just as shocking to her. She sighed and looked down at her feet. "How can we be?" she asked honestly. "I mean I'm with Daniel and you're, like, evil." The word felt wrong coming out of her mouth.

Cam looked at her, then, his eyes burning. "You really think I'm evil?"

Luce shrugged, still staring at the ground. "I don't know what to think anymore."

Cam nudged her knee with his. "Look at me."

Luce shyly turned her head up to meet his eyes. So green. They were gorgeous, just like the rest of his face. And body, as she had come to find out this evening. She tried to shake the impure thoughts he was making her think from her mind.

"Sometimes I wish I could just run away from all this." Luce said, surprising herself. She loved Daniel, or at least she thought she did. But if what Cam told her was true, maybe it wasn't worth putting herself and the other humans she'd grown to care about in danger.

Cam raised his eyebrows. "I wouldn't blame you." He leaned back against the sofa again, stretching out his legs. "In fact, I probably wouldn't stop you."

Luce smirked. "With what you've told me tonight I'm guessing I'd be dead in ten minutes, anyway."

Cam scowled, then his face softened. "I'd keep you safe."

"How?" Luce asked curiously, tucking her legs up onto the bed in an indian-style position.

Cam shrugged. "Follow you around forever, destroying anyone who dared to touch you."

Luce giggled. She untangled her legs, letting them drape over Cam's lap. "How selfless of you."

"Do you feel like you're stuck here, Luce?" he asked her, letting his fingers graze across her legs.

"With you?" she asked, feeling goosebumps rise at his touch. "Not really. Actually, this is the first time I felt like I could really talk to someone in a long time."

Cam smiled widely, still tracing arbitrary patterns across her skin. "I meant, here, in this fucked up situation, with all of us."

Luce frowned. "I don't know..." she said quietly. "Sometimes, I guess. But I can't just abandon Daniel, after all he's done for me-"

Cam scoffed loudly, his bare muscles tensing. "You mean all the times he's killed you? Yeah, I see your point."

Luce winced. She hated when anyone brought up her imminent death, and no one had ever put it so bluntly.

Cam sighed and put his hands over eyes. "I'm sorry." he said flashing her a rueful look. "I shouldn't have said that."

"I guess you're right, in a way." Luce said robotically, finding the words hard to say. "But he loves me, doesn't he?"

"I'm sure he does." Cam said sincerely. "Do you love him?"

"Of course I do!" Is what Luce should have said, but instead she found herself asking, "Can we talk about something else?"

"Anything you want." Cam said, picking up her hand and squeezing it lightly.

Luce was desperate to change the subject but nothing was coming to mind. She hopelessly gawked at Cam's perfect chest, afraid if too much silence lingered between them they'd fill it with more kissing. Cam shifted his shoulders awkwardly, momentarily exposing the sunburst tattoo at the back of his neck. Luce reached up and touched it uncertainly, like it might burn her fingers. "So tell me about this." she said playfully, hoping it would kill any of the leftover awkwardness.

Cam's face twitched in a strange way, jerking away from her touch. "It's just a tattoo." he said shortly.

Luce felt embarrassed for being so forward. "I'm sorry. I just thought it might mean something to you."

"It doesn't." he said quickly. "It did a long time ago, but now it's just there."

"Well, I like it?" Luce said hopefully, trying to bring back the lightness of their conversation. "Maybe I'll get one just like it."

Cam smirked. "Oh yeah?" His eyes glinted slyly. "Where?"

Luce blushed. "Oh, I don't know. My ankle?"

Cam lifted up one of her legs and inspected her ankle intently, gently running his fingertips across it. "I don't know." he said in a mock-serious tone. "I'm not convinved."

Luce wriggled her foot from his grasp and kicked at his side. "Jerk."

He laughed, reaching under her bent knees and pulling her closer to him. "What about here?" he asked, brushing the skin behind her ear. The sweet intimacy of his touch made her tremble.

"Why there?" she asked, furrowing her brows in confusion.

He brought his face close to hers again, breathing against her ear. "It's a nice place."

Luce felt heat all over her body, like slowly sinking into a warm bath. She bit her lip. "Are you trying to tell me my ankles aren't nice?"

"They're lovely." He murmured, his lips still pressed against her ear. "Just like the rest of you."

Luce snorted, turning her head away from him. "How would you know?"

"How would I not know?" He challenged.

"That doesn't even make sense!" Luce laughed, turning back to face him.

"You don't even make sense." he repeated, still teasing her.

Luce boldly traced her index finger along his jawline. He closed his eyes and tilted his back, enjoying her touch. "Do you think I'm a bad person?" she asked him suddenly, moving down to graze his bare arm with her fingertips.

He opened his eyes and studied her, confused. "Not at all. Why would I think that?"

"Because." Luce sighed. "All the people I care about are in danger, partially because of me, I have no idea where my boyfriend is right now, or if anyone is worried about me, I haven't seen my best friend or my parents in I don't even know how long, but all I can think about right now is how much I want you to kiss me again."

This time she could feel the muscles in Cam's arm tense. He sat up straight, angling his body away from her. "We shouldn't."

"I know." Luce said automatically, feeling stupid. "I'm sorry."

"Don't be sorry," he said, still turned away from her. "You know I want you."

The words hit Luce like a brick. _I want you._ Her legs felt heavy and her head felt light. "I want you, too." she said barely above a whisper.

Cam pushed himself completely away from her, with a strange sadness in his eyes. "Don't tell me that."

He reached over her for his rumpled t shirt and pulled it back on. Luce had never felt more embarrassed in her life. She wanted to curl up and disappear.

Cam turned his attention back to the television. A bunch of old people were gathered in some sort of fancy sitting room, a classic scene in most whodunit stories. Luce tried to pay attention but her mind was swimming with guilt and rejection.

"I've seen this one," Cam said more to himself than to Luce, trying to fill the horrible, gnawing silence between them.

"Maybe I should go back to school now." Luce offered numbly.

"Not yet." Cam answered, still looking at the television. He began to flip through channels rapidly, hardly taking notice to what was on each one. "Maybe in an hour or so."

An hour or so? She didn't want to spend another minute here. She curled her knees up against her chest and stared at the television as Cam continued to pass up channel after channel, the random blips of noise were better than nothing, at least it occupied her mind enough to not be able to think. Suddenly, an all too familiar fuzzy image of Audrey Hepburn appeared on the screen, Cam hesitated. Luce couldn't stop herself before she blurted out, "I love this movie."

Cam's eyes drifted to Luce for a moment, then back to the screen. He turned up the volume and tossed the remote aside. "Charade, right?"

"Yes!" Luce said a little too excitedly. "It's one of my favorites. I love Audrey Hepburn."

Cam smiled slightly. "She's alright. But I'm a big Cary Grant fan. This era of film is some of the best, in my opinion."

Luce felt her chest drop, like she was on a rollercoaster. The only other person in her life who had shared her affinity for old movies was her best friend, Callie, who she hadn't spoken to in ages. She fought the urge to whip out her phone and text her immediately. She would die if she knew Luce was with a boy who liked Cary Grant, especially a boy as gorgeous and alluring as Cam.

"In my opinion, too." Luce said finally. "How come I never knew this about you?"

Cam shrugged. "You never asked." He reached over to a switch on the wall behind them. "Mind if I turn out the light?"

* * *

><p>They watched the movie in silence for a long time. She thought if Luce from a year ago could see herself now, she'd think she was in Heaven. Curled up on a couch with a beautiful boy watching an old movie. If only the matter at hand was so simple. She glanced at Cam, his handsome features illuminated perfectly in the television's harsh light. Even in the semi-darkness his emerald eyes were still bright. She sighed audibly.<p>

Cam turned to her, giving her a strange look. Luce looked away quickly, her heart pounding.

Luckily something from the movie diverted Cam's attention. "Oh, this is my favorite part."

_"Oh, you should see your face." Cary Grant's familiar, crisp voice rang out in the silence._

_"What's the matter with it?" Audrey replied, her famous big brown eyes as wide as saucers._

_"It's lovely." Cary remarked as romantic music began to crescendo._

Cam turned to Luce again, a smirk spread on his lips.

"What?" Luce asked, embarrassed by his gaze.

"Nothing." he said, shaking his head. "I was just thinking, this is nice."

"What is?" Luce asked as dazed as Audrey had been.

Cam smiled broadly. "Being here with you, watching a movie, like normal people. It's nice."

Luce nodded. "I can almost believe it's real."

"Isn't it?" Cam asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Well, we're not normal people, are we?"

Cam chuckled. "No, I guess not. What would normal people do in this situation, anyway?"

"Well..." Luce mused, "If you were a normal boy I suppose you'd be spending half the movie wondering how you were going to get in my pants."

Cam snorted. "Maybe I am normal, after all."

Luce shook her head. "Yeah, right. I think you made it pretty clear you're not interested in any of _that_."

Cam shifted toward her. "Excuse me?"

Luce realized she'd said something stupid for the thousandth time tonight. "Never mind."

Cam shook his head in disbelief. "Are you really that clueless, Luce?"

"What do you mean?" Luce asked defensively.

He leaned forward, narrowing the gap between them. "There's nothing I want more right now than to pull you over here and kiss you as hard as I can."

Luce blinked. "Okay."

"But that would be the wrong thing to do," Cam said bitterly. "I don't want to take advantage of you."

Luce rolled her eyes. "I'm sick of being treated like a fragile piece of glass. I'm not a child, Cam. I told you I wanted you to kiss me earlier, and I meant it. And maybe it's really really stupid, no it definitely is. But it's the first thing I can honestly say I've wanted since my life became such a damn mess, and _you're_ the one who rejected _me_."

"Rejected you?" He asked incredulously. "Is that what you think I was doing?"

"Whatever!" Luce growled, turning away from him. "It's not like it matters, anyway."

Cam slid his arms around her waist and pulled her roughly to him. She gasped at the unexpected contact. "What are you doing?" she asked, her hands resting on his broad shoulders.

"Rejecting you," he answered before his lips crashed down on hers. Hard. Her hands pushed against his shoulders for support. He tightened his grip around her waist, making her sigh. His mouth moved against hers frantically, like at any moment she'd be torn away from him. She broke away and buried her face in the crook of his neck.

"Slow down," she panted. "I'm not going anywhere."

She waited for him to make a smart remark, but instead he just cupped her face in his hands and kissed her again. Softer, this time. He sucked on her bottom lip gently, then slowly pushed his tongue in her mouth. Soon enough her tongue found its way into his, and his hands traveled up and down her sides, making her shiver. She sighed into his mouth. "Better?" he asked breathlessly, moving his lips to her ear. He kissed down her jawline and began pecking at her neck sensually.

"Mmmhmm." Luce said, falling back against the bed of the futon. Cam hovered over her, his hands gripping her hips tightly.

Luce's hands began trailing up his arms and down his chest. She giggled, tugging at his t shirt. "This is in my way." she whined.

"You want it off?" Cam asked, laughing. "As you wish." He pulled off his shirt for the second time and discarded it carelessly behind him. Luce's hands raked down his bare chest. He closed his eyes and moaned softly. "You're killing me." he murmured.

"Really?" Luce asked coyly. "I thought we were making out."

Cam groaned and dipped down to kiss her neck again. He stopped at her ear to breathe. "I want to do unspeakable things to you."

Luce's heart flipped in her chest. She suddenly felt very aware of her body and all its flaws. This was wrong, and she knew it. But Cam's lips felt so good, she wanted his hands all over her, she wanted just one night _just one moment_ of something good with no consequences. Even so, this was not exactly how she imagined the loss of her virginity taking place. Especially with Cam, who she had to remind herself, was not her boyfriend.

"I'm not going to have sex with you." Luce said simply.

Cam didn't skip a beat. "That's okay." he planted a sweet kiss on her lips. "We can do other things."

* * *

><p>Luce felt dizzy as she attempted to quietly enter her dark bedroom back at Shoreline. It looked like her roommate, Shelby, was sleeping for once, and the last thing she needed after all of tonight's events was to wake up a sleeping giant.<p>

She stumbled into her bed, her lips already swollen and raw from the past hour she'd spent with Cam doing "other things". His scent was still all over her, in her clothes and her hair. It made her feel like a part of him was still with her. Holding her, kissing her, touching her. And she was surprisingly okay with that. She pulled her cellphone out of her pocket. _"Call me if you need anything."_ Cam had said when he'd dropped her off at Shoreline's entrance. He'd kissed her one last time, short and sweet, before adding "_Or if you don't_."

Luce didn't know what to do with that. She didn't even have Cam's phone number. Did he expect her to send out some sort of signal, or to throw herself in front of some onslaught of danger the next time she was in the mood? It didn't matter, anyway. She rationalized what happened with Cam was a mixture of wanting to get back at Daniel and being horribly lonely. She wouldn't let it happen again. Cam wouldn't tell Daniel, she didn't think, because then Daniel would know that Cam was breaking "the rules" by seeing her, whatever that meant. She sighed. How on Earth did tonight even happen?

"Are you just going to keep making weird noises over there or are you going to tell me where you've been?"

Luce bolted upright in bed. She turned and looked at Shelby's bed, where a peacefully sleeping Shelby had been replaced by an awake, annoyed one.

Luce cleared her throat. "I don't know what you mean. I was just out, you know, walking around. Doing some thinking."

Shelby scoffed. "Oh please. I could see the stupid smile on your face the second you walked in. You've got lovesick written all over you. Plus, you shirt's on backwards."

Luce blushed madly, gripping at her shirt, trying to turn it around as if that would help. "Ugh." was all she could manage to say.

"Spill." Shelby commanded. "I haven't heard a good sexy-time story in awhile. And here I thought you and Daniel were the immaculate couple."

Luce couldn't possibly tell Shelby what she'd been doing, let alone who she'd been doing it with. But for some reason she wished that she could. It'd be nice to at least have another girl's opinion on the whole thing. Shelby would probably just hate her more, anyway. So Luce went with it.

"It's really none of your business." she said, trying to remain diplomatic. "But I had a nice time with someone tonight, if that's what you're asking."

Shelby snorted, "O-kay. yeah. _Someone_."

Luce couldn't help but smile. She did have a nice time with Cam. The sudden memory of his lips on hers made her feel weak.

"God." Shelby sneered, "Look at you. He must finally be doing something right. I've never seen you look like this."

"Like what?" Luce asked breathlessly.

"So.." Shelby shrugged, "I don't know, happy."

Luce bit her lip and looked away. She wasn't sure if she was happy. She was sure that she shouldn't be. What could come of a relationship with Cam? He was...evil. But how could she think that? Especially after tonight...maybe it wasn't really as black and white as she thought.

"Hey Shelby," Luce said cautiously, thinking of how to phrase the next words she planned to say. "What do you think about Francesca and Steven?"

Shelby gave her an odd look. "Um, besides the fact that that question is totally out of left field, what do you mean?"

Luce sighed. "I mean, the fact that they're together. But she's an angel and he's-"

"a demon." Shelby finished. "I don't know, I don't really think about it all that much. They seem happy with each other, I guess."

"But don't you think it's kind of crazy for them to be together?" Luce persisted. "I mean yeah they love each other and everything but, like, I don't know how it doesn't drive them insane. They must fight all the time."

"I bet they have great make-up sex." Shelby nodded.

Luce threw a pillow at her. "I'm being serious."

Shelby giggled, "So am I! But where is this coming from, anyway? It's not like it's something you have to worry about. You've got your perfect little Angel Boy to love you up or whatever you guys do together. Are you worried that Daniel is thinking about joining the Dark Side or something?"

Luce fell back against her bed, emotionally and physically exhausted. "No..." she said finally, "I just...I don't know, I'm being weird. I think I need to sleep."

Shelby raised an eyebrow, but soon fell back into her own bed as well. "I can't believe I don't even get one measly detail about your wild night."

"It wasn't that wild, trust me." Luce mumbled sleepily, rolling over onto her phone. Instinctively, she picked it up and checked the time. There was a notification of a new text message flashing across the screen. It was from an unknown number. Luce frowned and opened her mailbox.

Two pixelated words glinted against the bright white background: _Goodnight, beautiful._

Luce's frown quickly dissipated into a goofy smile. Cam. He'd said it about 20 times tonight, when his mouth wasn't smashed up against hers, _"You are so beautiful."_

She drifted her thumb over the reply button, unsure of what she should say back. _Nothing_, she scolded herself. But then began punching in a quick response, just for good measure: _Goodnight, handsome._

Luce felt like she had barely hit send when her phone lit up again telling her she had a new message. She took a deep breath before opening it, but her heart was racing.

_Next time I say we eat pudding and watch Golden Girls_

Her breath caught in her throat. Next time? There wasn't going to be any next time, she forced herself to remember. She knew she should write Cam back right now and just tell him flat out that she was sorry, that she loved Daniel, and that what ever happened between them tonight was a mistake, a one-time thing, and he should leave her alone forever.

Instead, she turned her phone face down on her nightstand and rolled over in bed, yearning for sleep to come. When what felt like an eternity later, sleep still nowhere to be found, Luce defeatedly rolled over and grabbed for her phone. She groaned internally. Another text from Cam: _I'll take that as a yes?_

Luce smirked and typed out the first four words her sleep deprived mind thought of.

_You're the boss, applesauce._

Send.


	2. Chapter 2

_**A/N: I just wanted to say quickly THANK YOU to everyone who has reviewed this story. You're all so sweet and I'm really sorry it's taken me this long to update. But this update is very very extra long! I hope that makes up for it. **_

Four devastatingly uneventful days passed. Luce found herself easily pushing any unwanted memories to the very back of her mind. Except for when she closed her eyes to sleep. Her dreams were all smoldering kisses that left her lips aching, strong hands that made her body melt like butter, and impenetrable green eyes, following her every move. This night in particular, she was running. The forest was dense and black and the trees seemed to be made of liquid, shuddering and twisting around and arond until it became clear she had no way out. Her throat closed tight, her legs turned to stone. Luce began to panic. Unable to cry out, she closed her eyes and prayed silently for someone to save her.

"Luce?" a deep, familiar voice rang out softly. Her eyes snapped open. "Luce?" the voice called out again, more urgently this time. "Luce!"

Lucinda Price awoke with a jolt, her eyes opening for real this time. She sighed heavily. Just a dream, she thought as relief flooded her heart. But that voice seemed so real, so close. It was almost as if- "Luce, are you okay?"

"Wah!" Luce shrieked, spinning to the right and noticing the shadowy figure that sat next to her on her bed. Her eyes adjusted and the figure came into shape. She blinked. "Daniel?"

"It's me." He whispered, taking her hands in his. "I'm sorry I frightened you. I just came by to check on you quickly. But when I saw you tossing and turning like that, I had to make sure you were alright. Nightmare?"

"Yeah..." Luce answered in a haze. Her thoughts were swimming. Daniel was in her room. She hadn't seen Daniel in so long, how long had it been, exactly? Days, surely. It felt like forever. She smiled. "Hi."

"Hi." Daniel broke out into a heartbreaking smile. "What were you dreaming about?" he asked, his brows furrowing with worry.

Luce's mind flashed back to the horrible dark woods with the twisting shapes, the lack of oxygen, and the terrifying feeling of helplessness. Her throat began to close just at the memory.

"Um. nothing." she finally choked out, "I barely remember it. Something silly, probably."

Daniel continued to stare at her, his eyes full of concern. She wasn't sure why she wasn't comfortable telling him about the dream. Surely she should want to tell him everything. But it was just a stupid dream, anyway. "It doesn't matter," she added, squeezing his hands reassuringly. "You're here now."

That made him smile again. He brushed a strand of hair behind her ear lovingly. A ripple of emotion creeped down Luce's spine. She couldn't put her finger on what emotion it was, but it wasn't exactly what she'd describe as pleasant. Luce was horribly unsettled. First the awful nightmare and now Daniel being here, in her room, touching her, didn't even feel good. The confusion swirling in Luce's brain must have carried over to her face because Daniel leaned in and asked for the second time, "Are you okay?"

She tried to smile. "I'm fine. I'm just a little groggy. You did just wake me up, after all."

Daniel chuckled. "Yeah, from a bad dream. You're welcome." He leaned in closer to brush his lips against her temple. The sweetness of the gesture was almost a little too much to bear, more than enough to make someone like Shelby gag. Luce jerked away from Daniel in embarrassment. "Shelby!" she hissed, remembering she didn't live alone.

Daniel just laughed and pulled her close again. "She's not here. I wouldn't have come in if she was." Luce shoulders slumped in relief. "Where is she, anyway?" Daniel added curiously. "It's the middle of the night."

Luce shrugged. "She's always out at night. I think she has this on and off boyfriend that she visits, I don't know. Or she's just walking around the grounds or something. She likes stuff like that."

"Is that where you were the other night?"

Luce's entire body went rigid. "What?" she asked way too loudly.

Daniel's tone was impossible to read as he added, "I think it was about four nights ago, I came by to check on you and you and Shelby were both gone. I was worried, but I'd been so strict with you lately I knew you'd be angry if I went looking for you. I figured if you guys were together you couldn't get into too much trouble." He smirked.

God bless Shelby for being a night owl. Luce sputtered. "Uh, yeah...we were just hanging around outside...not outside the school grounds, of course. Doing...you know...girl stuff." Luce almost visibly winced at the ridiculous lie.

"Like what?" Daniel asked. Luce's mind raced. Did he know? Was he just torturing her? Playing dumb until she cracked? Or was he really as oblivious as he seemed? Thankfully, Luce's cell phone buzzed at that moment, giving Luce an excuse to turn away from him.

She grabbed her phone eagerly, holding it close to her face as she checked her messages, _just in case._

"Speak of the Devil" she murmered as she read the text from Shelby: _Outside. Saw D in your room. Tell him to leave so I can come in. _

"It's Shelby." Luce said to Daniel, giggling. "She wants you to leave so she can come in."

Daniel scoffed. "Tell her she can wait another five minutes. I want at least a little time alone with you."

Luce quickly responded: _Um, give us like 5 minutes. Sorry! _

Her phone buzzed again almost immediately.

_Were you guys doing it again OMG! Gross :P_

Luce's throat made an involuntary squeaky sound.

"What?" Daniel asked smiling, leaning over Luce to see, "What'd she say?"

Luce quickly snatched her phone away before he saw anything. "Nothing. She's uh, just being Shelby. She's annoyed, but it's okay."

Daniel rolled his eyes. "Well I guess I better make this quick so Queen Shelby doesn't fret."

"Make what qu-" Luce didn't finish her sentence before Daniel's lips were on hers. They moved against hers effortlessy, as they had thousands of times before. She closed her eyes, wrapping her fingers around his neck to bring him closer. A few minutes later and it was over. Luce felt like her heart should be racing, but it wasn't. She felt like her head should have been light and tingling, but it wasn't. And then Daniel was slipping away, promising her he'd see her soon. She felt like she should have been aching at his absence, but she wasn't.

Before he left he said he loved her. She said she loved him too.

But she wasn't sure she meant it.

She typed two short words to Shelby, who was still waiting outside: _he's gone_

* * *

><p>"Wake up wake up wake up." were the first words Luce heard upon awakening for the second time. She rolled over and opened her eyes. Shelby was bouncing up and down on her bed.<p>

"Mrrrnh" Luce grumbled. "What are you doing?"

"Staging an intervention!" Shelby replied loudly, "You sleep too much."

"I do not." Luce replied defensively. "What time is it?"

"Five."

"PM?!" Luce asked bolting upright. "I slept all day?"

"Now that you realize you have a problem," Shelby mocked, "We can come together to find a solution."

Luce rolled her eyes. "Whatever. I hardly got any sleep last night."

Shelby made a gagging sound. "Yeah, I bet."

Luce blushed, recalling the impromtu visit from Daniel. "That is not what I meant."

"Sure, whatever you say." Shelby giggled. "But you seriously need to get up. I'm bored. I feel like the only loser on a Saturday night not out having fun."

"Why didn't you go see if Miles wanted to hang out?"

Shelby gave her a pointed look. "I'm not that desperate."

Luce rubbed her eyes sleepily, supressing a yawn. "What did you have in mind?"

Shelby's eyes lit up with mischief. "Party."

Luce looked at her warily.

"Please say yes." Shelby begged.

Luce sighed. "Whose party?"

Shelby looked at her like she was stupid. "Um, I'll give you three guesses."

Luce just blinked at her.

"Roland!" Shelby said, smacking her arm playfully. "Who else even throws parties here worth going to?"

It was true. Luce mulled the idea over in her head. She liked Roland, and his parties were always fun. She also really needed something to take her mind off what had happened with Daniel last night. And what had happened four nights ago. She gave another heavy sigh. "Okay."

"Yes!" Shelby gave a triumphant fist pump. "Now get up and start getting ready."

* * *

><p>Luce was in considerably better spirits as she and Shelby trekked arm in arm down the long pathway that outsretched before Shoreline's entrance. The dream and Daniel's lingering words already fuzzy in her mind. And she was eternally grateful to have plans that didn't involve any boys who might feel the urge to feed her applesauce or surprise-attack kiss her, which seemed to have been happening more than she'd like. Even Shelby's nonstop teasing was bearable, for once.<p>

"Is your Lover going to be super pissed that you're doing this?" Shelby cooed, knocking against Luce as they walked.

Luce found herself giggling in spite of everything. "No. He doesn't tell me what I can or can't do."

Shelby whistled obnoxiously. "Look at you, miss independant. I thought sex was supposed to turn you into a Stage Five Clinger."

Luce scoffed. "Oh my God, how many times do I have to tell you? Daniel and I are not..." she struggled to find the words, "...doing anything!"

Shelby merely rolled her eyes. "Whatever you say, you little nymph."

"You're ridiculous!" Luce yelped, but she was still laughing. "Where is this party happening, anyway?"

"It's a bonfire." Shelby explained, "So it's in the woods."

Luce's whole body went rigid. "What?"

"What?" Shelby repeated in confusion. "What's wrong?"

Luce sighed. The dream she'd been trying to shake off all day came creeping up along the edges of her mind. "I don't...want to go."

"Excuse me!" Shelby sputtered. "And why not? You promised!"

"I know!" Luce moaned. "But...why didn't you tell me we'd have to be in the woods?"

"I thought you liked the woods!" Shelby whined impatiently. "Luce come on. You already promised. And we're already almost there. And I had to wait outside like a dog last night when you and Lover Boy were doing "nothing" so I think you owe me!"

Luce huffed. She reminded herself that this was real life and not her dream. Shelby would be there, as would lots of other people. It was a party, after all. Nothing to be afraid of. She suddenly felt a little silly.

"You're right." Luce said, beginning to walk again, linking up her arm with her roommate. "Sorry."

Shelby smiled. "That's my girl." She squeezed her hand. "We'll have fun, I promise."

The woods were sparkling around the enormous fire that blazed in the distance. As Luce neared closer to the warm light and sounds of people she began to fully relax, smiling as they closed in on their destination.

The sounds of people talking and laughing swirled together in a mindless cacophany as they made their way into the throngs of people. Luce briefly scanned for Roland, no sign of him. It was a bit of a relief, as seeing him would only make her think of Daniel, which was something she did not want to deal with.

Shelby grabbed ahold of Luce's arm suddenly and yanked. "What is _he_ doing here?!" she hissed.

Luce heart kicked into double time. "Who?" She whipped her head around to the direction Shelby was glaring. She breathed a heavy sigh of relief. It was Miles, walking toward them with an uncertain smile.

"Hey" he said sheepishly, avoiding eye contact with Shelby. "You guys are here?"

"Shelby dragged me." Luce laughed, hoping to ease the obvious tension betweent he two of them.

Miles laughed too, nodding at Shelby. "Sounds like her." Shelby scoffed at that.

"I come bearing gifts, if that makes you any happier to see me." he offered up two cups he'd been holding. "I mixed these myself."

Shelby perked up, greedily snatching one of the cups from his hand. "You are useful, after all." She took a gulp and closed her eyes. "Yum."

Luce eyed the contents of the cup. It looked like orange juice. She brought it to her lips and took a tentative sip. The liquid was horribly bitter but the aftertaste was citrus-y and somewhat pleasant. "Thanks," she murmed awkwardly, not wanting to hurt Miles' feelings. "It's good...whatever it is."

"Screwdriver." Miles and Shelby answered at the same time. Luce just nodded and smiled, even though she had no idea what that was. She took a bigger sip. Still bitter. Shelby seemed to be enjoying it, taking in huge gulps like she was parched, but the taste was totally lost on Luce.

"Is that music?" Shelby asked suddenly, breaking through Luce's train of thought.

"Yeah," Miles answered. Luce listened and could make out a few arbitrary sounds that resembled a guitar. "Some guy's been doing covers all night. He knows like, every song ever. It's pretty cool."

Shelby's face took on a devilish quality. "Is he hot?"

Miles rolled his eyes. "I don't know, why don't you go see for yourself?"

"Don't mind if I do!" Shelby giggled, taking another swig of her drink. "Come on, Luce." Luce felt a vague sense of dread as Shelby linked her arm in hers and took off toward the sound.

People were singing along as a guitar was being plucked mercilessly. Luce strained to make out the words.

_You're brought back, but you're runnin'_

_I fell asleep in the alkaline_

_I can't shake this little feeling_

_I never did anything right_

A warm raspy, voice rang out a little louder and clearer than the rest. Luce assumed it belonged to the guitar player Miles had mentioned.

_Well, take me - take me back to your bed_

_I love you so much that it hurts my head_

_Say, "I don't mind you under my skin"_

_I'll let the bad parts in - the bad parts in_

The voice was intoxicating. It made her head feel fuzzy and her eyes momentarily unfocused.

"Oh yeah," Shelby hissed into her ear as they stumbled forward, closer the the voice. "Major. Hottie."

Luce couldn't see over the mass of people surrounding the singer. His voice wavered on, finishing out the song. People were clapping and yelling out titles of songs Luce had never heard of. She felt uneasy and took another drink, hoping the sharp taste would steady her.

"What's he look like?" She whispered back to Shelby.

Shelby was straining over the people in front of them to get a closer look. She sighed dreamily. "Dark hair, sexy arms..."

"How can someone have sexy arms?" Luce giggled, the thought occuring to her as absolutely ridiculous.

Shelby snorted. "You have no idea." She continued to rattle off descriptives, "Super cute smile. Nice teeth. Gorgeous eyes."

"Really?" Luce asked absent-mindedly. Her eyes were darting around, still no sign of Roland or anyone else she didn't want to run into. Good. She took another sip of her drink, noticing the taste was a little more bearable.

"Yeah," Shelby breathed. "Even from all the way over here I can tell that they're green."

Luce almost spit out the liquid in her mouth. "Wait." she said grabbing ahold of Shelby's arm tightly. "What?"

"Are you even listening?" Shelby hissed. "Here, just look for yourself."

"No, wait-" Luce tried to resist but Shelby was already dragging and pushing her in front of people to see the person behind the haunting voice with allegedly "sexy arms".

Luce's heart dropped like a stone. Sitting languidly among a throng of smitten females was-

"Cam, that was so good!" one of the girls cooed, putting her hand on his shoulder. "You're, like, so amazing."

Luce combatted the urge to vomit by taking a long gulp of her drink. The bitter taste stung in a good way this time.

"Who is that guy?" Shelby wondered aloud.

"Cam Briel." some random tall girl beside them answered. She and her friend exchanged looks. "He is so hot."

"Yeah," her friend agreed, bopping her head along to non existent music. "He is like, so, you know...hot."

"Does he even go here?" Shelby asked, furrowing her brow at the girls.

"He's friends with Roland Sparks." The tall one shrugged.

"Where is Roland?" Luce finally managed to find her voice.

"Haven't seen him, I think he's on a beer run or something." the shorter girl mused, her words were slurred and spread apart, Luce realized she was probably drunk.

"Haven't missed him, either." the tall girl giggled, nudging her friend. "The view's pretty nice from where I'm standing."

"Do you guys even know him?" Shelby retorted rolling her eyes.

"I'm sure I will before the night's over," the tall one fired back haughtily. "If you know what I mean."

"You kiddies need'nt concern yourself with this big girl talk." The short one slurred. "Real men aren't attracted to babies."

"I wouldn't be too sure about that." Shelby mocked her slurred speech.

"And why is that?" the tall one snapped.

"Because he's been staring at Luce this whole time."

All four girls whipped their heads up toward where Cam had been sitting. Luce's eyes locked on Cam's and her breath caught painfully in her chest. She felt dizzy all at once and the urge to throw up claimed her once again.

Cam smiled easily and got up, handing his guitar off to one of his adoring fans, and began walking toward them. Luce's stomach clenched. She finished the rest of her drink in one giant gulp.

"Omigod!" The tall girl hissed. "He's totally coming over here. Do I look bangable?"

"Totally bangable!" her tiny minion squealed back.

Luce grabbed for Shelby's drink and gulped that down too as Shelby yelped in protest. "What are you doing?! You're gonna make yourself sick!"

"I'm already gonna be sick." Luce muttered. "Orange juice always makes me feel better."

"Uh, Luce." Shelby scoffed. "That wasn't just-"

"Hey." an all too familiar voice cut through the whisperings of all the girls. "What's up, ladies?"

"Uhh...hey." Shelby managed to choke out, blushing wildly. Luce couldn't blame her. The first time seeing Cameron Briel up close was a mind reeling experience.

The tall girl moved in immediately, like a hawk circling her prey. "Hey yourself." She crooned, leaning into him as she spoke. "What brings you over here, then, Mister Rock God?"

Luce could almost hear Shelby rolling her eyes. She pretended to be very interested in a tree in the distance. She felt hot, dizzy, disconnected from reality. Was Cam really having this much of an effect on her?

"Well," Cam answered, his voice like butter, "I happen to have an Achilles Heel for beautiful girls." Luce looked up suddenly, a little jealous and more than a little outraged that Cam was flirting with some random girl right in front of her. She planned to very haughtily make her exit when she realized Cam wasn't looking at the tall girl, or any other girl for that matter, but her.

"Sucks." Shelby shot at the girls. "Guess you big girls needn't concern yourself with this kiddie business, huh?"

The girls stalked off in an overly scandalized fashion, mumbling that Cam wasn't that cute anyway.

Cam smirked. "Good one. I'll have to use that next time I need to get rid of someone." Shelby blushed in spite of her indifferent demeanor.

"Aren't you going to introduce me to your friend?" Cam directed at Luce.

"What?" Luce asked, her eyes felt fuzzy. She managed to focuse them on Cam, who was looking from her to Shelby. "Oh! This is Shelby!" Luce answered way too loudly. She slung an arm awkwardly around her. "She's like my best best friend."

"Nice to meet you, Shelby." Cam smiled broadly at her. "I like your style."

Shelby eyed Cam suspiciously, but Luce could tell she thought he was alright. "So you're old pals then? Good to know. Maybe you can help me get her off." Luce was clinging to Shelby like a life raft, barely able to keep herself off the ground.

"Whoa," Cam said, noticing Luce's disposition. "What's wrong? Is she sick?" Luce felt Cam's hands on her waist and back, pulling her upright. She rested her head, which felt impossibly heavy, on Cam's chest.

"Homegirl just downed two screwdrivers in like 10 minutes." Shelby scoffed, "I told her she was gonna make herself sick."

"I was thirsty!" Luce yelled back, her mouth muffled by Cam's shirt.

Cam laughed and tilted her head up to face him. "Oh my God, Luce. Are you drunk?"

"What?" Luce exclaimed. "No!" She looked frantically back at Shelby. "Am I?"

"Totally." Shelby replied. Cam laughed again. "That fast? From two drinks? Oh, my little lightweight."

"Are you trying to tell me..." Luce said slowly, scrunching up her eyebrows, "That there was alcohol in those drinks?"

Shelby just stared at her. "Oh my god. I can't even...Come on, Luce. We're gonna go get you some water. And a cold shower." She grabbed for Luce's arm, but Luce just sank to the ground until Cam grabbed her around the waist and yanked her up again.

"Oh no, I'm fine. I'm fine." Luce reassured her. "We don't have to leave. I know you wanted to have fun and I don't want to ruin it. I love you!"

Shelby just groaned and looked to Cam for assistance. "Can you help me out here?"

"I can go get her some water." Cam said, rubbing Luce's back gently. "We'll walk it off. She'll be okay. Enjoy yourself."

"Um, I don't think so, bro." Shelby said. "No offense but I'm not about to leave my best friend with some random guy at a party while she's drunk. Do you think I've never seen a lifetime movie?"

Luce spun around with a new burst of energy. "Oh no no, you don't have to worry about that. Cam would never hurt me. I trust him with my life." She wrapped her arms around him, giving him a squeeze. "Isn't Shelby so thoughtful?" she asked him dreamily. "She's my best friend."

"You mentioned that," Cam said, smiling down at her like she was something precious. He looked toward Shelby again. "I'll have her back in an hour. Promise. She'll be safe with me. When Roland gets back, ask him about my credentials. He knows me."

"Is Roland my friend too?" Luce asked, frowning. "I really like him."

"Of course he is." Cam answered, pushing Luce's hair out of her eyes. "He likes you too."

"We're all friends!" Luce yelled. "That's all I want." She said, leaning her head on Cam's chest again, "For us all to be friends."

"That's sweet." Cam said, pulling her tighter against him. "Albeit a little unrealistic. But we're cool, right Shelby?"

Shelby looked from Cam to Luce uncertainly. "You're really friends with Luce and Roland and Daniel and everyone?" Luce winced at the sound of Daniel's name and she was glad her face was buried in Cam's shoulder.

"Really." Cam assured her. "Technically Luce has known me longer than all the rest of them. But who's counting, right?" He flashed Shelby another cocky I'm Cam Briel smile.

Still, Shelby hesitated. "Luce, can I really trust this guy?"

"I trust him." Luce whispered, still nestled against Cam's shoulder.

"Just take her back to our room." Shelby ordered. "I'll be home in a couple hours. And I want Luce to call me as soon as she's sobered up. I'm serious. I'll be calling her phone to check in. And if you do anything to hurt her I'll..." Shelby searched for the right words, "Um, you know...kill you."

Cam nodded seriously. "Got it." He hoisted Luce up in his arms, cradling her. "You ready?"

"Mmmm." Luce mumbled. "Water. Bed."

"Those must've been some pretty strong drinks," Cam noted as he turned to make his leave. "I hope you trust whoever gave them to you."

Shelby scoffed. "Oh yeah, he's harmless. He's just a stupid idiot."

Cam smiled, "I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship, Shelby. Enjoy the rest of your night."

"Yeah we'll see." Shelby said, but she was smiling too. "Remember my rules!" She shouted to their retreating figures. "Or I'll hunt you down!"

"I like her." Cam said when they were out of earshot.

"Me too!" Luce said nodding her head fervently. "I'm glad you guys like eachother. She and Daniel don't get along."

Cam snorted. "Somehow that doesn't surprise me."

* * *

><p>20 minutes and a bottle of water later, Luce was sitting on her bed, slumped against Cam, feeling a little bit less like she was trapped on a neverending carousel and her head felt a little less heavy, but she still felt a little unhinged, like every thought that came to her seemed like a great idea to say out loud. Specifically:<p>

"Why didn't you call me?"

Cam looked surprised. "Well," he said, shifting so they were facing eachother. "I didn't want to push you or freak you out. I mean, I know I came on a little strong the other night."

"I liked it." Luce replied instantly, then realizing she probably shouldn't have said that.

Cam's whole face went soft and he stroked his thumb across her cheek. "Yeah, well, I liked it too."

"We should do it again." Luce said, her mouth still not getting the 'dont say that' memos from her brain.

Cam raised his eyebrows. "What, specifically?" he asked. "The vintage tv? The applesauce?"

Luce giggled. "The kissing." she said slowly, leaning closer. "And the other stuff."

Cam edged away from her. "You're drunk." He reminded her gently. "And you're being very forward with me right now. You're compromising my virginal innocence."

"I'm not drunk!" Luce retorted, sitting up straighter and composing herself. "See, totally fine."

"Then you should call Shelby and let her know you're alright." Cam said, handing Luce her phone.

"Ugh," Luce groaned. She typed in Shelby's number reluctantly, and waited. It went to voicemail. "Hello, best friend!" Luce spoke loudly into the receiver. "I'm calling to let you know that I'm unharmed and undrunk. But I guess you're too busy to answer. Very offended. But I hope you're having fun. Also, you were right about Cam's arms. Goodbye!"

Cam stared at her. "That was not very convincing. She's going to kill me now."

"No she won't." Luce said, patting his leg reassuringly. "She's probably drunk by now, herself."

"What was she right about, exactly?" Cam asked.

"Huh?"

"You said: _you were right about Cam's arms_. What does that mean?" He cocked his head to the side, amused.

"Oh," Luce said realizing she'd said another stupid thing out loud. "She said they were nice."

"Nice?" he asked, examining his arms in mock disbelief.

"Mmhmm." Luce said, taking the opportunity to examine them herself. "Well actually, she said they were sexy."

Cam raised his eyebrows. "Really."

"Really," Luce nodded. "I must say I agree."

"You are so lecherous tonight." Cam admonished playfully. "Are you sure you're not still drunk?"

"I'm not." Luce insisted. "I just missed you and I...uh..." she blushed, her inhibitions slowly creeping back to ruin her night, "...you know."

Cam smiled devilishly, "Do I?"

Luce fell back against her bed. "I'm too tired to deal with this!" she whined, "Are you going to kiss me or not?"

"I was definitely thinking about it." she felt Cam's weight press against the bed as he hovered on top of her.

"You-" Luce didn't have time to finish her thought because Cam's lips were on hers any thoughts she had melted away.

After a few minutes of lip-bruising kisses, Luce broke away. Cam took that as a cue to start trailing kisses down her neck and collarbone. Luce closed her eyes and arched her back slightly, her body pressing up against Cam's in a wonderful way. He made a low sound in his throat and nipped at her neck gently. She wasn't accustomed to this type of intimacy with anyone. Not even Daniel. _Ugh_, she reminded herself, _don't think about your boyfriend while you're making out with his arch nemesis_. Cam's mouth moved back to hers and her thoughts were hazy again. Kissing him felt so good. Maybe she should just live in the moment. It's not like Cam was pledging his undying love for her or anything. It was just kissing and- _oh_. Cam's hand had slipped underneath her shirt and he was tracing his fingers along her ribcage. His mouth traveled down her neck and chest again, moving lower than it had before. Her back arched involtunarily, pushing the lower half of her body right up against his- _oh, god_. "Wait." She said breathlessly.

"What's wrong?" Cam asked, looking up at her. His eyes were intense and his cheeks flushed. He looked so handsome and sexy and Luce wanted him more than anything in that moment. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath. Cam propped himself up on his elbow, waiting patitently for her to answer.

"I'm confused." she said finally.

"About what?"

She blushed. "This."

He frowned slightly, rubbing her arm. "Too fast?"

"No," Luce answered. It surprised her how far she wanted to go with him. That wasn't the problem. "It's not that, it's just...um...well, you know..." her throat tighented.

Cam stared intently at her, trying to understand. Then realization hit him. "Daniel?"

Luce grimaced. "Yeah." she said quietly.

Cam nodded and looked away. "Well. Do you want me to leave?"

"No!" Luce said immeidately, leaning her body to be closer to him. "No, don't go."

"I probably should." Cam said solemnly. "I don't want to make you feel weird and confused, Luce."

"You're not the one that's making me feel weird," Luce grumbled. "Daniel came to see me the other night."

Cam's face darkened.

"It was so strange." Luce continued. "He was being sweet and romantic and I just felt so uncomfortable. He kissed me and it was like all I could think about was that I wanted him to leave."

Cam looked at her guiltily. "It's still my fault. I should never have kissed you. You'd still be crazy over Daniel if we hadn't done anything."

"Maybe," Luce whispered, "But we did. And now I have no idea how I feel about Daniel. And I'm a little crazy over you."

Cam smiled at that. "I'm a lot crazy over you."

"So you're not just doing this, then?" Luce asked tentatively.

"What do you mean?"

"I mean," Luce sighed awkwardly. "Well, I mean, I am..I was a little worried that maybe you were just like...you know..messing around...with me."

Cam's brows furrowed. "Messing around?"

"I don't know!" Luce blushed. "That night you seemed so..." she searched for the words, "into me. And it excited me and scared me. But then you never called me. And it felt awful."

Cam sighed and pulled her in close to him. "I'm sorry I didn't call you. Like I said, I was just worried I was going to push you away. And I can assure you that I'm not messing with you, Luce. Whatever that means." He kissed her forehead. "And I hope you know that you don't have to do anything you don't want to. We can go slower-"

"Oh, no." Luce cut him off. "That's just the thing. I want to do everything with you."

Cam cocked an eyebrow. "Oh, my. Everything?"

Luce nodded, kissing his cheek. "Is that okay?"

"More than okay." Cam answered, running a hand through her hair. "What should we start with, then? Skydiving? Bull-riding? Rap battles? We should get started as soon as possible, if we're going to do everything."

Luce giggled, bubbling over with happiness. "How about we start with this?" She kissed him soundly.

"Good plan." he agreed, falling back onto the bed with Luce falling on top of him. And they kissed. And kissed. And their hands roamed frantically over and under their clothing until there was just skin between them. Then they slowed down, both a little unsure of how far they should go. Cam kissed Luce from her mouth to her jawline, down her neck and shoulder, pausing only to say, "I want to kiss every inch of you."

Luce smiled, blushing. "I would be okay with that."

Cam grinned wickedly and continued kissing her all the way down her arm, to her hand, and back up again. He trailed kisses across her chest and down her stomach. Luce sucked in her breath as he moved even lower until-

_BUZZZZZZZ- BUZZZZZZZZZ-BUZZZZZZZZZ_

Cam jerked up. "What was that?"

"My phone," Luce squeaked, reaching blindly until she caught it right as it was about to raucously vibrate right off her nightstand. "Hello?"

"Best friend!" Shelby's voice shouted, "I am so so so SORRY I missed your call! Are you okay?"

"Yes, I'm fine." Luce said, holding the phone a few inches away from her ear since Shelby was literally screaming. "Are _you_ okay?"

"I'm wonderful!" Shelby sang, "Is Sexy Arms still with you?"

"Yes, he is." Luce answered, then to Cam, "It's Shelby."

Cam laughed. "I can hear her."

"Did he say something?" Shelby yelled excitedly. "Let me talk to him please!"

Cam grabbed the phone before Luce could answer. "Hello Shelbs, how are you?"

"Cam!" Luce could hear Shelby yelling through the phone. "I am perfect in every way. I just wanted to say thank you for taking care of my best friend. You're AWESOME! And really cute. And I can totally tell that you have a crush on Luce. Sorry she has a boyfriend. You're nicer than he is! Okay let me talk to Luce now please!"

Cam handed the phone back to Luce wordlessly, silently laughing at Luce's horrified expression.

"Are you coming home soon you little drunk?" Luce asked once she had the phone up to her ear again.

"Yes!" Shelby squealed. "Very soon! I'm on my way now! I'm walking and I'm so dizzy! But Miles is here and he's being really annoying God I hate him but I kind of really like him, you know? I love you! Bye!" And with that, Shelby hung up.

"Oh. My. God." was all Luce could manage to say before succumbing to a fit of giggles.

"I knew I liked that girl." Cam said, shaking his head. "She has great taste."

Luce rolled her eyes. "She's on her way back. So I guess we should, um, compose ourselves."

Cam leaned in and kissed her softly. "Okay. But I'm nowhere near done with you."

Luce bit her lip, suddenly shy. "I wish we could sleep together. I've been having awful nightmares."

Cam's face was suddenly etched with concern, he cupped her face with hands. "Have you? About what?"

Luce recounted the horrible dream about the woods. "It's stupid, I know but-"

"It's not stupid." Cam said, seriously. "Don't think that. I wish I could stay, too. There's nothing I want more than to be able to hold you all night. And it will happen, soon." He kissed her again. "If you get scared just text me, I'll be awake. Okay?"

Luce nodded. "Thank you." It was all she could think to say.

They took their time getting dressed, taking numerous kissing breaks inbetween locating articles of clothing. Cam was still shirtless when there was a knock on the door.

"Oh God," Luce sighed, "I hope she doesn't puke all over everything."

"Good luck with that." Cam smirked. "Have you seen my belt?"

Luce looked around as she made her way toward the door. "No, check under the bed. And hurry up she'll freak if she walks in here and you're all indecent."

"She's totally hammered, she won't even remember in the morning. Found it!" he exclaimed holding up his belt like a trophy.

"You're so lame." Luce teased and the knocking grew louder and more insistent. "Will you calm down I'm coming!" Luce yelled. Cam was still pulling his shirt on when she opened the door expecting a stumbling Shelby and instead came face to face with

"Daniel!" she squeaked at the sight of him.

Daniel looked from Luce to Cam back to Luce, confusion, shock and anger on his face. "Well...what the hell's he doing here?" He looked to Luce for an explanation, who just stared at him, frozen like a deer in the headlights.

Cam sauntered over to the door, unable to keep the gloating smile off his face. "Daniel! Just the guy I wanted to see. I was just leaving. But now that you're here I think I might stick around for awhile. Make a night out of this oh so serendipitous run-in. What do you think, Luce?"

"Oh..." Luce said feeling as if she might faint. "Oh, dear."


	3. Chapter 3

Daniel stepped forward into the room with a murderous look in his eyes. "You just don't know when to quit, do you?"

"Daniel-" Luce interjected warily, her mind spinning to come up with something -anything- to say to make Daniel realize this wasn't what it looked like.

Even though it was.

"I can explain." she managed, tugging on his arm. He turned to her abruptly with such a fierce look Luce winced. He opened his mouth to speak when Luce's savior in the form of a drunken roommate burst into the scene.

"Why is the door open?" Shelby bellowed, stumbling into the room, she straightened when she saw Daniel. "Oh, God. What are you doing here? I'm gonna throw up."

Daniel narrowed his eyes. "What the hell is going on?" The confusion in his voice overtook the anger.

"We were partying, grandpa!" Shelby retorted, "Ever heard of it?"

Daniel's jaw clenched. "I was referring to the unwanted presence in this room, thank you, Shelby."

Shelby opened her mouth in offense. "This is MY room!"

"Not you." Daniel snapped, jerking his head back toward Cam, who for once in his life looked like he didn't quite know what to say.

Shelby gasped and threw her arm around him. "Cam is my friend!" she slurred, slumping against him sleepily. "I love him, he's so great. We just met tonight. Isn't that awesome?"

"Oh," Daniel said, the natural color returning to his face. He pointed a finger at Shelby, as if he'd solved a puzzling riddle. "She's drunk."

"Uh, you think?" Cam snorted, scooping her up in his arms and carrying her over to her bed. "I think it's time for you to rest now, my little lush."

"You are so NICE!" Shelby squealed, kissing Cam on the cheek. She rolled her head up to look at Daniel. "Unlike some people in this room I could mention."

Daniel turned his gaze toward Luce again. "Outside." Luce didn't like the way his voice sounded like a command, like she was a dog that needed to follow orders. But she followed him outside the room anyways, in a daze. Her stomach was doing somersaults. She could feel her legs shaking. She'd never dealt with any kind of confrontation from a boyfriend before. What was he going to do? Yell at her? Call her names? Break up with her? None of those sounded particularly fun to Luce. She shakily took a breath as she tried to drum up the courage to speak.

"I knew you were keeping something from me." Daniel said, shaking his head. "Why?"

Luce felt her throat catch as she tried to speak. "I...I-I don't know." she stuttered. "I didn't know how to tell you."

"How long has this been going on?"

Luce blushed, guilt weighing heavy on her heart. "Not long." she finally replied. She couldn't bring herself to look at him. "I...I don't know how it happened...it just..." she trailed off, her throat closing up with tears again.

"You really should let me say something to her." Daniel said, sighing heavily.

That made Luce snap her head up in confusion. "What?"

He shrugged. "I know she's not my biggest fan, but I know Cam better than anyone. I know what he's like. Shelby can do much better than him and she deserves to know."

Luce blinked slowly. Shelby?

He thought...Cam...and Shelby...

Luce knew she should confess to everything right now. That this was the do or die moment. That maybe if she explained how lonely and confused she'd been...how Cam had been there when she needed someone...that maybe, maybe Daniel would forgive her and they could move on and everything would go back to normal. All she had to do was tell him the truth.

She opened her mouth but the words wouldn't come. She closed her eyes and brought her hands to her face. "I don't think she would listen to you." she finally croaked out.

And further down the rabbit hole she went.

* * *

><p>As soon as Luce came back into the room, Cam grabbed ahold of her arm and tugged her gently outside into the hallway. He looked like he had a lot to say when he stopped at the sight of her.<p>

"What's wrong?" he asked, wiping her tears away with his thumbs. His eyes darkened. "Did he do something?"

Luce shook her head. "No, no. He just..." Luce could feel her face contorting as she tried to stop crying. She took a deep breath while Cam waited patiently for her to compose herself, rubbing her shoulders reassuringly. "We just talked a little bit. And he left."

"I don't understand."

Luce sighed. She looked up at Cam ruefully. "He thinks you were in my room to see Shelby. I didn't tell him that. He just assumed. But I didn't tell him he was wrong, either."

Cam expelled a huge sigh of relief and wrapped his arms fully around her, kissing her forehead. "Well, that's good...right?"

Luce pushed him away gently. "You need to go."

She felt him tense up. "Okay." he said quickly. "I'll go."

"Please don't be mad at me." Luce whispered, "I'm two seconds away from having a nervous breakdown and I really do not think I could handle it if you were mad at me right now."

He threaded his arms around her again and squeezed. "Luce, I'm not mad at you. How could you think that? You haven't done anything wrong."

Luce scoffed at that.

"This is all my fault." He continued, his voice taking on a somber tone. "I feel awful. I can't stand you being upset like this. And knowing I caused it."

Luce groaned, he was just making her feel worse. "I'm just freaked out." She tried to explain. "I don't know what I'm doing. I don't know what to do now. This is all such a mess."

Cam looked as miserable as Luce felt. She wanted to stroke his face, kiss his sadness away. But she couldn't keep doing this. Seeing him behind Daniel's back. It wasn't right, and she loved Daniel. Still, the thought of not seeing Cam again felt like a punch to the stomach.

"Look," Cam said, looking away from her, "if you want to just...forget about this. We can do that."

"What do you mean?"

"I mean we can just stop doing this right now. I'll leave and we can, hopefully, be friends." Cam winced at the word. "I won't say anything to Daniel, or anyone, and I won't make you feel guilty about any of this. Ever."

Luce bit her lip. It was a tempting offer. And it was what she should want. That way she could still have Cam in her life, at least. And no one got hurt. Except Cam looked pretty grief-stricken at the moment. And the thought of never kissing him again wasn't exactly appealing. Luce frowned. "I think that's probably what we should do."

Cam looked heartbroken. It made Luce feel physically ill. "That's not what I want, though." she added, even though it didn't make a difference.

Cam gently touched his forehead to hers. "Yeah, well. That makes two of us." He was trying to mask the bitter tone to his voice, but Luce still picked up on it.

"I just don't know what the right thing to do is." Luce whispered. Cam didn't answer with words but simply ran his hands down her arms reassuringly.

"Doing the right thing isn't really one of my strong points." Cam snorted, shaking his head. "I don't know what to..." he broke off mid sentence, seemingly exasperated. "This is where I messed up before."

Luce eyed him, confused. "What do you mean?"

Cam's expression morphed into something Luce had never seen on him before. He looked sheepish...nervous, even. "I don't know if I should be telling you this.."

His sudden vulnerability enraptured Luce. In that moment, nothing else was important. There was just Cam and something was hurting him and she couldn't stand it. She reached one arm around his neck and pulled him close. "You can tell me." she said softly.

He sighed heavily and closed his eyes for a long moment. When he opened them again there was still that wretched, pained look in his eyes.

"This has happened once before." he said barely above a whisper.

Luce pushed back from her consoling embrace to look at him. "Excuse me?"

"It was like this. Between us."

Luce felt her whole body tense. The meaning of his words wouldn't fully sink in. That couldn't be...he couldn't mean...she had always loved Daniel. She was sure of that. "What?" the word came out accusatory and harsh.

"I didn't plan for it to happen!" Cam hissed, a bit defensively. "Don't get me wrong, Luce, you've always been beautiful, in some of your lives we were even friends, but you never really interested me...like that. You were Daniel's...it never even occurred to me to...but anyway, the point is. There was one time, a long time ago-"

"How long ago?"

Cam took a step back. "You know what, you're not ready to hear this."

"Just answer the question." Luce demanded, though she wasn't sure she wanted the answer.

"Uh, it was 1969, so...you do the math."

Luce drew in a shaky breath. "Why wouldn't Daniel have mentioned this to me?"

Cam scoffed loudly. "I don't see why he would. It wasn't his finest hour, what happened between the three of us. And he can't have you thinking of him as anything less than perfect. God forbid you don't worship the ground he walks on."

"What do you mean by that?" Luce asked tersely. She wasn't exactly comfortable with him so bluntly degrading Daniel at the moment.

"I mean he's not exactly the saint you think he is, Luce." Cam drawled as if it were obvious.

"I don't believe you." Luce said, feeling her stomach knot. She suddenly felt a bit disgusted with herself. "You're just trying to make me hate Daniel because you do."

Cam looked genuinely shocked at her words. "Luce...no. That's got nothing to do with this-"

"This!" Luce squeaked, feeling sicker by the second. What was she doing? Out here in the middle of night arguing with Cam of all people. Cam, who was not her boyfriend. Cam, who'd been nothing but shady since the day she met him. Her head was swimming, something about what he was saying unraveled something inside her, it was just too much. "What even is this, Cam? What have you been doing with me? Messing with me just to get to Daniel?"

Cam placed his hands on Luce's shoulders and gave her a gentle shake. "Luce. Listen to yourself. You know that's not true."

"Well I need to believe it is." Luce said, her voice breaking. "Because if you're not lying to me then Daniel is. And I don't...know...how to feel...about that."

Cam pulled away from her and rubbed his temples, sighing heavily. "I knew I shouldn't have said anything. You're not ready...I'm an idiot. Jesus."

"No, no you shouldn't have." Luce agreed, her voice reaching a hysterical pitch. In a small corner of her mind, she felt like maybe she was overreacting, but the warring emotions she was feeling seemed to take precedence over logic.

"I'm sorry I upset you." Cam said in a clipped tone. "Truly, I am. You need to get some rest. Forget everything I said tonight if you want. I'm leaving, but if you change your mind, well, you know where to find me." And with that, Cam was gone.

* * *

><p>Luce crawled into bed miserably. She wanted Cam gone didn't she? So why did his absence feel heavy and wrong? She wanted to rewind time and unhear those things he'd said. Surely he was lying. But why would he lie to her about something like that? Because he's a bad person, she thought, then immediately regretted it. He wasn't a bad person. She knew it the way you just know things, which felt as lame as it sounded, but it was true.<p>

"So that was pretty dramatic." the sound of her roommate's voice made Luce jump.

"God, don't you ever sleep?!" Luce asked, sitting up to see Shelby perched at the foot of her bed.

"It's a little hard to when two people are having a really loud lover's spat right outside my room."

Luce blushed a deep crimson. Great. Embarrassment and guilt hit her like slap. "How much did you hear?" she groaned, covering her face with her hands.

"So I think I have it all figured out," Shelby continued as if Luce hadn't spoken, "When you came home all loved up in the middle of the night, you'd been with Cam, not Daniel. And that's why he was so intent on getting you alone tonight, so you guys could carry on with your sordid little love affair. And then Daniel showed up and messed up everything, as per usual."

Luce just made a terrible whiny sound and turned to bury her face in her pillow.

"Well?" Shelby prodded. "Am I right?"

"More or less." Luce finally mumbled.

"Aha!" Shelby exclaimed. "I'm surprised, Luce. Like really surprised. I didn't know you had it in you."

"To be a horrible, terrible, awful person?" Luce scoffed. "Yeah, me neither. But here I am in this mess."

"It's not really such a mess," Shelby mused, her voice surprisingly free of any sort of disdain or judgment. "Just call Cam in the morning and be all sweet talky, you'll be fine. He's probably just mad your little lovefest got interrupted by the object of his affection's boyfriend. That sort of thing can set a guy on edge. Men, am I right?"

Luce gathered herself up again to look at Shelby. "Um. That's not exactly the problem."

Shelby stared at her blankly. "Then...what is?"

"Um!" Luce repeated indignantly, "I don't know, the fact that I'm totally cheating on Daniel?"

"Oh...that." Shelby rolled her eyes. "Whatever. It's not like you guys are married. I mean, you're a teenager for Christ's sake. He doesn't own you, and if I recall he's been kind of a dick to you lately. If you like someone else he can deal with it."

Hearing Shelby say it like that, it was like a huge weight was just lifted of Luce's shoulders. Maybe having feelings for Cam wasn't such a bad thing. "But I don't want to lose him." Luce said, earning another eye roll from Shelby.

"Isn't it a little late for that?" Shelby asked. "I mean didn't he catch you in the act?"

Another wave of guilt slapped Luce in the face. "Um. Well, no. Not exactly. He came in after we had, you know...finished." Shelby snorted at her word choice and Luce pressed on hurriedly. "So he doesn't know what we were doing and I should have told him but I didn't because I still want to see Cam, or well, I did. Now I don't know. I don't think I should. I mean, I shouldn't right? He said all this crazy stuff to me just now and I don't know what to believe and I just... I just don't know what to do!"

Shelby nodded, amazingly seeming to have processed Luce's babbling. "What was the crazy stuff?"

"Huh?"

"You said Cam said crazy stuff to you. I could hear you two bickering back and forth but I couldn't make out much of what was being said."

Luce gave her a brief recount of what Cam has insinuated.

"Hmm," Shelby said thoughtfully, "That is a lot to take in. But you know what I think?"

"What?" Luce grumbled, as she wasn't sure she did want to know what Shelby thought.

"I think it freaked you out so bad because you've got a guilty conscience. Like, you lied to Daniel and you feel really crap about it, so thinking that he possibly may have been lying to you about something just made you snap. And poor Cam took the brunt of it. Tsk, tsk."

Shelby's analysis made sense, too much sense, the embarrassing kind of sense that made Luce want to deny it automatically. Instead she voiced something else that just entered her mind. "I don't know if I can believe what he said, though. Not just about Daniel. But about me and him. He said there was a time that we were together. I just don't see how that's possible. I mean, I've always loved Daniel."

"Yeah, until now, apparently." Shelby remarked sarcastically.

"Well, yes!" Luce said defensively. "Until now, whatever's going on between me and Cam, it's always been me and Daniel. I know it."

"How do you know it, though?" Shelby countered. "Because Daniel told you?"

Luce's prepared reply caught in her throat. That, she thought, was a very good question.

* * *

><p>Luce had no idea how she got any sleep after the night's events, but she managed to pass out eventually. She spent the next few days in a self-indulgent funk, replaying the past week in her head over and over, trying to come to a conclusion of what she should do. Shelby offered to help her by coming up with a list of pros and cons for Daniel and for Cam, but when Luce saw the lists Shelby had single-handedly compiled that included cons for Daniel such as "he smells" she knew she wasn't going to get anywhere.<p>

"I need a sign." Luce announced that night, as they were climbing into bed. "My brain is fried, I've been thinking in circles for days. Obviously I have no idea what I'm supposed to do. Now would be a good time for the universe to guide me."

Shelby yawned lazily. "Alright. If I stumble across any signs, I'll let you know."

Luce tossed and turned, unable to fall asleep. Her mind was still reeling and her body felt restless. She sighed and rolled over for the thousandth time. She stared into the darkness of the room, unblinking, wishing for sleep to claim her. Her eyes skittered to a ripple in her peripheral vision. An indiscernible glint in the darkness. She propped herself on one elbow and squinted. There was something small stuck under the foot of her dresser, shining dimly from the light the moon supplied. What...was that? Luce got up in an almost trance, knelt down to the dresser and tugged at whatever it was. When it came free Luce sucked an involuntarily sharp breath. She held in her hand something she didn't even know she still had. She blinked a few times, running her fingers over it, to make sure it was real. She was then met with the sudden clarity she'd been struggling to achieve. She slid back into bed, still clutching the thing in her hand. With her free hand, she blindly reached for her phone and sent an impromptu text message to the person the thing once belonged to.

* * *

><p>"So, what made you change your mind?" Cam asked sleepily as they sat side by side in an unfamiliar vehicle. Luce briefly wondered if hot wiring cars was a regular past time of his, but there were more pressing matters at hand.<p>

"Sorry I woke you." Luce said, though she wasn't particularly. Cam just shrugged. "You said you needed to see me right away, so here I am."

She smiled in spite of herself, feeling affection and desire bubble up inside her. She wanted to kiss him but that probably wasn't the best idea at the moment.

"I'm sorry for freaking out on you," Luce began warily. "You just surprised me, but mostly I was just mad at myself, and I took it out on you, and well the point is, we're here now and I'm ready to hear...whatever you have to say."

Cam was gazing at her with an amused half smile. He stroked her cheek with the back of his hand. "You're really adorable when you're nervous."

"Stop that," Luce chided, batting his hand away. "No distracting me with your romance or there will be dire consequences."

Cam sighed. "You still didn't answer my question. What changed your mind so suddenly?"

"Oh." Luce said, feeling a blush rise to her cheeks. "It's a little silly, I guess..."

Cam just stared at her, waiting for her to continue.

Luce rummaged through her coat pocket and brandished a necklace with a snake pendant. "I found this." she said simply.

"You gave me this." Luce added, when Cam didn't say anything. "Remember?"

Cam shook his head as if he couldn't believe this was real life. "Of course I remember, you silly girl." He leaned in close to her. "I think I'll just have to deal with whatever consequences you have in store, because I really want to kiss you right now. And I'm going to."

His lips were on hers before she could protest. It was a quick, soft kiss, but it made her skin heat up like fire. She sputtered, shoving him away reluctantly. "None of that until after we've talked."

"Fair enough." Cam nodded. "So, you sure you're ready to hear this?"

"No." Luce shook her head. "But, that makes no difference. I want to know the truth."

"Alright, then. Where should I start?"

"The beginning would be nice." Luce suggested.

"Ah, okay." Cam cleared his throat. "In the beginning, God created the Heavens and The Earth-"

Luce shoved him again, harder this time. "Can you be serious, please?"

Cam gave her a sad puppy look. "Excuse me for trying to lighten the mood. But okay, okay. Like I said, it was 1969..."

_to be continued_

_**A/N: Just wanted to say a very big thank you to everyone who has read and reviewed this story. I know it's been a millennium since I last updated, but this story was originally just meant to be a fluffy one shot but since so many people seem as attached to this pairing, I must continue! But seriously, thank you so much for all the nice wonderful reviews. It was seeing how excited people were about this story that made me decide to keep it going. You're all awesome!**_


	4. Chapter 4

_**AN: again I would just like to say thank you to all the sweet amazing thoughtful reviews you guys give me.**_

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><p>"Wait." Luce said urgently, placing her hand on Cam's knee, as if to physically stop him.<p>

Cam broke off his sentence and fixed his gaze on Luce hand. He moved his on top of hers, threading their fingers together. He turned to meet her eyes. "Okay."

Luce took a deep breath and closed her eyes. She felt Cam rub his thumb against the back of her hand and it felt like such a foreign yet familiar sensation, Luce had to open her eyes just to watch him doing it, and all at once she knew that was he was about to tell her was true.

As reassuring as his touch was, there was something making Luce's stomach churn with anxiety.

"Luce?" Cam asked gently, seeing the troubled look in her eyes. "Are you okay?"

She exhaled shakily, looking away from him. "Well. You're going to tell me about one of my past lives, right? One where..." her throat tightened around the words, "we were together."

"That was the plan." he answered easily, "I didn't think you dragged me out of bed in the middle of the night to hear Goodnight, Moon."

She smiled in spite of her sickly feeling, she knew that Cam's attempt at humor was for her benefit. She was suddenly feeling much more in tune with Cam himself, what he was really like, why he did certain things. She didn't know where these feelings were coming from. They were creeping up in the back of her mind, like painfully vivid deja vu.

"Here's the thing," Luce said slowly, so that her voice didn't shake, "I don't...want to hear about how I...you know..." she glanced at Cam momentarily, "died."

Cam raised his eyebrows, clearly surprised by this confession.

"It just, it freaks me out a little." Luce added quickly, "I don't know. I just...I don't want to hear that part. I can't deal with it."

Cam nodded slowly. "I understand."

Luce looked at him, grimacing slightly. "Is that...okay?"

Cam smirked grimly. "Well. It's kind of an important part of the story, and I think you should hear about it eventually, but if you're not ready..."

"Are you mad?" Luce felt panic. "Please don't be mad, I just-"

Cam interrupted her with a harsh chuckle. "I'm not mad. I don't think I've ever been mad at you. Or ever could be. Why are you always asking me that?"

Luce heaved a sigh of relief. "Sorry. It's just...habit."

Cam shot her a rueful look. "I think maybe you're confusing me with someone else."

Luce blushed and bit her lip. "Um. That's another thing..."

"Oh?"

"I don't really want to hear about him, either. I know it's going to be something bad. And I don't know if I can deal with that right now on top of everything else."

Cam sighed heavily and leaned back against the seat of the car. "Okay. So then what do you want to hear?"

Luce scooted closer to him, taking both of his hands in hers, still looking down. "I want to hear about us."

"What about us?" Cam asked, his voice low and close to her ear. She shivered involuntarily.

"Well, how did we meet?"

"Here. Let's get a little more comfortable." Cam shifted and pulled Luce backward until she was leaning up against his chest. He wrapped his arms around her and held her hands. It felt warm and wonderful and, again, strangely familiar. Luce realized more and more things about Cam felt this way, like a dream you know you've had but can't quite remember.

"Much better." Cam murmured into her hair, and she couldn't disagree.

"I was living on my own, out west, pretty far from civilization. I didn't want to be bothered, I was going through an anti-social stage-"

"Imagine that." Luce giggled.

"Hey, we can't all be the most popular girl in school. Anyway, back to my story...wait, where was I? I can't seem to remember what I was saying before I was so rudely interrupted."

Luce laughed again and closed her eyes, relishing in the feel of Cam all around her. "You were living in the middle of nowhere..."

"Oh, right." Cam continued, "Well, it wasn't really the middle of nowhere. But it was pretty far away from the city or any main roads, so you can imagine my surprise when one fine day I get a knock on my door and find a strange girl covered from head to toe in dirt asking if she can have a glass of water."

"Wait..." Luce said, raising her head to look at him. "Me?"

"I didn't even recognize you at first." Cam said, smiling. "You were in pretty bad shape. So, naturally being the good Samaritan I am I gave you some water and let you wash yourself off. Then you come strolling out of the bathroom telling me about how you got separated from the people you'd been travelling with and I realize that it's you and I was just like, you have got to be fucking kidding me."

"You mean you weren't happy to see me?" Luce teased.

"Shocked is more like it. It was just insane. I'd been staying at that place for a few years, I hadn't been in contact with Daniel or Roland or anyone for quite some time. And then just bam, out of nowhere, of all the gin joints in all the world, you walk into mine."

Luce smiled stupidly at the movie reference. "But...how did I get there?"

"You told me you had left home and were hitch hiking your way across the state. You'd been travelling with a group of people and somehow got separated from them. So you just started walking." Cam chuckled, "You were a bit of a...how should I put it...free spirit back then."

"This is weird," Luce said. "It's like, none of this makes any sense...but at the same time it kind of does."

"So anyway," Cam barreled on, "I'm like what am I supposed to do with you? I didn't know where Daniel was or how to contact him. And you were obviously on your own with nowhere to go, so I decided to let you stay with me. You didn't even ask. I didn't even offer. You just stayed and that was that."

"How free spirity of us." Luce remarked dryly.

"It was surreal, you being there. I'd always only ever known you as being an extension of Daniel. It's like you two were two parts of the same whole, that's how I always saw you. But there you were, just you, you're own person. You had all these wild thoughts and hopes and dreams. It was incredible, seeing you like that. I never noticed how truly beautiful you were until then."

Luce's breath caught in her throat. She wondered if that's how everyone saw her, as just an extension of Daniel? That notion didn't exactly sit well with her. Of course she was her own person, wasn't she?

She didn't have much time to mull this uncomfortable thought over as Cam continued his story, "So yeah. I was just kind of wrapped up in that, you know? Getting to know you on this new, exclusive level was so crazy. I wasn't really thinking about anything but living in the moment, but then one day I was just standing in the kitchen and you came in and you walked up to me and said, and this is a direct quote, Luce. You said, What would you do if I kissed you right now?"

"Oh, God." Luce grumbled, feeling heat rush to her cheeks.

"I'm serious!" Cam laughed. "Then I knew I was really screwed. How could I possibly explain why I couldn't become involved with you? And the way I'd been so infatuated with you ever since you showed up, it was only natural for you to assume I was attracted to you-"

"Are you saying you weren't attracted to me?" Luce goaded, pouting for good measure.

Cam rolled his eyes and tightened his embrace around her. "I told you, " he said softly, "Thinking of you in that way didn't even occur to me. You were gorgeous, obviously, but you were the definition of off-limits. So I'm standing there thinking of the best way to let you down easy and I realize fully for the first time that it's just me and you in that room. No one else. Just us. And you hadn't even met Daniel yet. You weren't technically his yet. You were a completely separate entity, all your own. So I'm standing there, mid-epiphany, when your mouth comes into direct contact with mine."

"And then?"

"And then, nothing. We were kissing and there wasn't anything else."

"It always feels like that when we kiss." Luce said automatically before her brain could fully process the thought.

"Yeah," Cam's lips were against her ear again. "It does."

"Aren't you going to finish the story?" Luce whispered, trying to ignore the goosebumps rising on her skin.

"Well," Cam said with a sigh, "You said you didn't want to hear the bad stuff. And that's just about where the good stuff ends."

Luce frowned. "So we only kissed one time?"

"Oh no." Cam said, his voice like silk. "We kissed a lot. Among other things."

"Don't tell me we..." Luce trailed off in shock.

"What?" Cam asked, then scoffed when he realized her meaning. "No! Get your mind out of the gutter, Lucinda. I just meant we did a lot of things together. Boring things. Like watching TV, cooking food, playing scrabble, that sort of thing."

"How long did I stay with you?" Luce asked.

"Almost a year." Cam said, his voice taking on a less jovial quality. Luce knew she was in dangerous territory.

"Wow, that's a long time." she said, lamely. "What happened to make me leave?"

"I thought we decided we weren't going to go there," Cam said, giving her hands a squeeze. "At least, not tonight."

"Yeah, you're right." Luce agreed. She turned her body so she could face him, and was surprised to see how sad he looked. "What's wrong?" she asked, confused by his sudden change of mood.

"Nothing, sorry." he gave her a small smile. "Just talking about it, it brings it all back, you know?"

"Was it so bad?" Luce asked tentatively.

"Luce." Cam said, and his voice was a warning. "Don't."

Luce realized in that moment Cam seemed as ill prepared to discuss the rest of the story as she was. And once again, seeing Cam in a state of distress pained her in the most unbearable way. She cupped his face in her hands, desperate to bring him out of it.

"Cam," she said very seriously, "What would you do if I kissed you right now?"

He smiled, and this time it reached his eyes, "I think I'm having deja v-"

She pressed her lips up against his before he could finish. She felt him smile against her lips before kissing her back. There was something different about this kiss, because they weren't kissing out of uncontrollable lust, and they weren't kissing just to lead up to something else, they were kissing just to kiss. Just to be close to each other in that way. And that was a whole new intimacy Luce had never experienced with Cam. Except, she had. She knew she had. Not just because he'd told her it happened, but because there was something else stirring inside her growing more intense by the second. She pulled Cam even closer, deepening the kiss, feeling herself becoming utterly lost in him. His hands, one at the small of her back, one entangled in her hair. His mouth, warm on hers. The feel of his body pressed close, the scent of him, and all of it so achingly familiar. And then-

Luce pulled away abruptly, breathing ragged. Cam stroked her face. "What's wrong?"

"Cam..." she said uncertainly, "I think... I think I just...remembered."

Cam's breaths matched hers in uneven rhythm. "Remembered what?"

"The story."

"What?" Cam asked. A moment later, his whole body tensed. "You mean, the rest of it?"

"No," Luce said, dazed. "No. But I remember...you. Your hair was longer then. And me. Mine was too. And us. I remember kissing you, in a car, like this. And I remember doing all that stuff together, at least, little bits and pieces. I don't know...I feel dizzy."

Cam just stared at her, wide-eyed, the shock settling around him. Then he flew into action, stroking her hair, her face, murmuring that she was okay, to just breathe, that everything was okay.

"I'm okay," Luce said finally, her breathing slowly returning to normal. "I'm fine."

"Are you sure?" Cam asked hoarsely. "I don't even know if I'm okay."

"We're okay," Luce said decisively, wrapping her arms around him tightly.

"Are you scared?" Cam asked suddenly.

Luce pulled back to look at him, confused. "Why would I be scared?"

"Well, I know it's a lot to take in. And it all just happened so fast. Whatever just...happened."

Luce shook her head. "I'm not scared. All the memories I got were good. Really good."

Cam smirked. "Well...that's good."

Luce giggled and rested her forehead against his. "Thank you." she said softly.

"For what?"

"For giving me back a piece of myself." Luce said, "You don't know what it means to me."

Cam tucked a strand of hair behind Luce's ear, a simple gesture, but it was filled with such tenderness Luce had to blush. "We should probably get you back to school."

"Okay." Luce said, though parting from Cam was the very last thing she wanted to do right now. On the other hand, exhaustion was starting to sink in. "I am kind of tired."

Cam promised her he'd come get her the next night, so they could go back to his place and talk more, maybe hash out the rest of the story if both of them were ready.

When they reached their destination, Cam got out of the car and began walking around to open the door for Luce. As he was helping her out of the car, a voice sliced through the darkness.

"Well, this wasn't high on the list of things I was expecting to see."

Luce whipped her head around but she didn't need to see to know who it was. She knew that voice.

"Daniel." she said as he stepped out of the shadows. "What are you doing here?"

"I could ask you the same question."

"Listen, Grigori." Cam started, stepping protectively in front of Luce, "I can explain."

"I think I would rather Lucinda to do the explaining." Daniel's tone was icy.

Thankfully, in that moment, a thought struck Luce like a match. "I remembered something."

Daniel cocked his head to the side in confusion. "What?"

"I remembered something." Luce repeated. "About me. One of my past lives."

Daniel blinked in surprise. "You did? Why didn't you call me right away?"

Luce narrowed her eyes, suddenly realizing how angry she was at Daniel. "Funny thing. The memory didn't involve you."

Daniel raised his eyebrows in recognition. "Oh. I see. That."

"Yeah," Luce repeated, "That. I can't imagine why you never mentioned it."

"Luce has had a long night," Cam said, placing a hand on her shoulder. "I think we should let her go to sleep. We'll talk about this later."

"What exactly did you remember, Luce?" Daniel asked, ignoring Cam completely.

"I think you know." Luce said simply.

"She only remembered bits and pieces," Cam supplied, eyeing Daniel knowingly. "She didn't remember..well...you know what."

Luce looked from Daniel to Cam, confused. "I'm tired." she said, "I'm not ready to hear any more tonight. I remembered some things about me and Cam that confused me. He was just trying to help me fill in the gaps-"

"Help you?" Daniel asked incredulously. "I don't know how much or what you've remembered about you and Cam, Luce. But while he was oh so generously filling in those gaps I'm going to take a wild guess and assume he conveniently left out the part where he killed you."

Luce nearly toppled over. "What?"

"I thought so," Daniel sneered at Cam. He smiled and it wasn't the smile she was used to seeing on him. And when he spoke it was in a voice she barely recognized. "Well, then. I think it would be rather unfair of us to let her go to sleep without knowing the full story. What do you say, Cam?"

"Killed...me...?" was all Luce could manage to say, the words hitting her like a slap. That didn't make any sense. She looked frantically to Cam, waiting for him to blow off such a ridiculous accusation.

Cam just sighed and looked skyward. "Well," he said finally, "I guess that's one way to put it."


	5. Chapter 5

_A/N: I just wanted to say, again, how much I adore and appreciate every single review you guys have given me. I know I tend to fall off the face of the earth and leave you guys hanging, and I'm really sorry for that, but I'm already almost done with what will be the next chapter so fear not, the wait for the next one will not be nearly as long. I feel awful for the long sporadic breaks in between updating, but thanks to everyone who's sticking with me/this story! Your reviews and comments seriously make my whole day. I can't thank you enough! Oh, and just and fyi, **these next 2 chapters are taking place in the past**, bit of a flashback, if you will..._

Cameron Briel had never been a particularly happy sort of guy. It seemed like his lot in life was simply to be that guy who things never work out for. Yet instead of accept this dismal fate and moving on with his existence, he continued to rage against it. He put himself out there, time and time again, like a moth to a flame, only to get burned every single time. He couldn't seem to help himself. That's just the way he was. When he'd met Lilith, he thought that just maybe, finally, things might actually be different. Someone up there finally thought he deserved a little joy. But no, that ended in heartbreak, just like everything else. And that was the straw that broke the camel's back. After that, he just couldn't be that guy anymore. The guy who rolls with the punches, the ever-resilient warrior, the good guy. He couldn't be that guy any more, he was done with that. So he let himself fall into despair completely, turning himself over to the darkest parts of himself, and reveled in it. Happiness was overrated, so was being good, Cam was sure of that as he was sure that he'd never feel the the gnawing pain of love again, or much of anything really. Shutting yourself to all real emotion was the way to go. He didn't need to feel, he didn't need his "friends", or Lilith, or God, or anyone at all. He was better off this way, he thought. Not happy, that wasn't the word for it. It was more like, when he gave up all that shit that wasn't important...love, happiness, duty, honor...this huge weight was lifted off his shoulders...he'd lost everything, so now he could do whatever he wanted. He was free.

Then, he met her.

"What are you thinking about?" she asked sleepily, rolling over to snuggle into his chest. Her voice was like hearing your favorite song for the first time. He smiled in spite of his dark mood as she threaded her slender fingers through his.

"Nothing," he answered vaguely. She'd been with him now for almost eleven months, and in that time they'd shared so much, they knew each other inside and out. They whispered everything to each other while they lay intertwined in the dark every night, their wildest dreams, their darkest fears. (She wanted to be an actress, she was afraid of being alone.) They knew each other's favorite everythings and how to make each other angry and exactly what to say to say to make it all better. The only thing she didn't know was, well, the most important thing of all. The one thing that could tear them apart. She didn't have to know all that shit. She was happy. She was young. She was beautiful. She deserved everything this world had to offer and more. The thought of having her glorious light snuffed out so soon made Cam sick to his stomach. So, he kept her safely shrouded in darkness. He knew they couldn't go on forever this way. But forever means nothing when you're living in the moment. He wasn't ready for that moment to end.

"Don't tell me nothing," she said, flipping her body to rest on top of him. She planted a soft kiss on his face and sat up, smiling down at him. Her long, dark hair cascading in messy waves in front of her face, and she pushed the wild tresses back with that adorable, annoyed expression on her face. "Ugh. This hair. Someday I swear I'm gonna cut it all off."

"You'd look cute with short hair," he smiled wryly. "Like a little pixie."

"I've always wanted to be a pixie!" she exclaimed brightly, and her face was a vision. "Or a mermaid. Or a dragon."

Cam chuckled, "You could pass for a mermaid with this like it is," he tugged on her hair gently. "But you know what I think you are?"

She bit her lip, her eyes lighting up with curiosity. "What?"

He took her hands and kissed the back of each one lightly. "An angel."

She giggled. "But I don't have any wings."

He looked up thoughtfully, as if pondering this statement. "Hmm. I guess you're right. Can't be an angel with no wings, huh?"

"I don't believe in that stuff," she said, her eyes locked on his, as if daring him to disagree. "Angels. Or God."

"Me neither," Cam said with a decisive nod. "Total bullshit."

"I just don't see how there could be a God with all the bad stuff that goes on in the world, you know what I mean? I mean, maybe I'm wrong, I don't know. But if there is a God or whatever, why does he let all this bad stuff happen?"

"I ask myself that question every day." Cam said, trying to hide his amusement.

"Plus," she said softly, leaning down to give him a sound kiss on the lips. "I don't see how Heaven could be any better than this."

"It's not." Cam said, reaching up to stroke her face. "Not even close. Trust me, I've been there."

She laughed at that, rolling over onto her back again. "I love you."

He closed his eyes. It hurt to hear her say it. The good kind of hurt, though. The kind that seemed to make all the darkness in his life so far seem faraway and irrelevant.

"I love you, too, Luce." he whispered, pulling her close.

When they'd managed to extract themselves from bed, which was not until many hours later, Cam couldn't shake the weird feeling that had begun to stir in his chest. It was an increasing feeling of dread, he'd always been a bit of a paranoid guy, but this was something else, something that he couldn't ignore, which is why when Luce said she wanted to go for a walk, he immediately shut the idea down.

"Let's just stay in today," he murmured, holding her close from behind. He placed a soft kiss on her neck.

She grumbled, turning around in his embrace to face him. "But we haven't gone out in awhile, I want to do something fun."

"You mean staying cooped up in a shack all day and night with me isn't fun?" Cam teased, raising an eyebrow.

"It is fun," she smirked, nuzzling against his neck affectionately. "But it's such a nice day out, I just want to enjoy it. Please?" There it was. She'd asked him for something. Her big hazel eyes so bright and innocent, he couldn't say no.

So they walked, hand in hand, aimlessly. They talked more about mythical creatures and what sort of inanimate objects they'd like to be, if they had to choose.

"If you had to eat one food for the rest of your life, what would it be?" she asked, swinging their hands back and forth as they walked.

"Tacos." Cam answered immediately. "You?"

"Ice cream!" she shouted like a little girl.

He laughed, the feeling of dread was pressing on his chest now, but he forced it aside, not wanting his inconvenient mood to ruin her good one. "Okay, if you had to listen to one song for the rest of your life, what would it be?"

She widened her eyes in thought. "I don't know...I can't think...you go first."

Cam smiled broadly, and spun her around, as he began to sing softly, "_Picture yourself in a boat on a river, with tangerine trees and marmalade skies_." She rolled her eyes, reconizing th tune and scoffed. He laughed as pull her close to him, still singing, "_Somebody calls you, you answer quite slowly. A girl with kaleidoscope eyes_." He paused, kissing her eyelids in an exaggerated gesture, making her giggle. "_Cellophane flowers of yellow and green, towering over your head_," he swayed their bodies back and forth, dropping his voice low and looking directly into her beautiful eyes, "_Look for the girl with the sun in her eyes...and she's gone..._" he paused dramatically for a long moment, before spinning her around again and shouting the chorus,"_Lucy in the sky with diamonds! Lucy in the sky with diamonds, Lucy in the_-"

"Okay, okay, I get it!" she laughed, wriggling out of his grasp. "I used to love that song when I was a little girl." she pouted, "Then I found out it was about drugs."

He scoffed. "No way, it's totally about you."

"Is it now?" she asked, hooking her arm through his as they continued walking.

"Uh huh," he confirmed. "I actually-"

"Oh, look!" she exclaimed, tugging the material on his jacket. "Let's go in there."

Cam looked to where she was pointing to see a small grocery type store. The moment he laid his eyes on it that terrible, pressing feeling in his chest multiplied. He grimaced. "Nah, it looks sketchy. Let's just head back."

"But I'm hungry," she pouted, still tugging him along toward the building. "I want some ice cream." she turned to him, smiling. "You can get some frozen tacos."

He couldn't help but smile back, even though he felt like the world was about to end. "Once we get home, we can drive somewhere else. Anywhere you want."

She smiled knowingly. "But I want to go in there. Please?" There it was again. That word. The way her lips pouted when she said it. He frowned, knowing what ever they were going to find in there was bad news. Still, he couldn't refuse her anything she wanted. He sighed heavily, throwing a protective arm around her and heading closer, toward the building, the pain in his chest almost unbearable.

They hadn't been in the store for more than a few minutes when Luce had somehow managed to evade him, making him incredibly nervous, usually he found her flighty way of wandering off cute but this was not the time for her to make him worry. His eyes darted around fiercely, wondering how it was possible for him to lose sight of her in such a small space, when he felt a hand on his back. He turned and there she was, looking shaken.

"What's wrong?" he asked softly, wrapping his arm around her.

"I want to leave." she said, her voice was strange. "I'm upset."

"What happened?"

"Some guy was hitting on me. He was creepy as hell."

Cam's mood instantly turned from concerned to muderous. "What guy? Where is he?"

"No, don't start anything." she begged, "I just want to go."

"I'm not just going to let some creep mess with my girl." Cam said darkly.

"I appreciate it," she smiled briefly, "But I just want to leave. Please."

This time the word didn't work. The horrible feeling in his chest started to take on a more concrete, familiar shape. He frowned deeply. "Luce...what did the guy look like?"

"I don't know, tall, I guess. Blonde hair..." She shook her head. "He was looking at me like...I don't know. It was just creepy. He was creepy. He..." she paused, biting her lip.

"He what?" Cam asked, voice devoid of emotion.

"He...knew my name." Luce whispered, her voice cracking with fear. "I've never seen him before in my life."

"Fuck." was the first word Cam could think of. He grabbed Luce by the wrist. "Come on, we need to get out of here."

"I'm sorry!" Luce whimpered as he dragged her as fast as possible in the opposite direction of the building. "Are you mad at me?"

"Of course not," Cam said, though his voice was still rough. He turned to her, "Luce, what did the guy say to you?"

She shrugged. "I don't really remember. He just came up to me and said my name, which freaked me out. And he was looking at me like...I don't know how to explain it..." her voice trembled, "I figured he was just some run of the mill creeper so I just told him I had a boyfriend and to screw off."

Cam smiled slightly at that. That must have thrown him for a loop.

"How did it feel when you saw him?" he asked, trying desperately to not feel jealousy, not now, of all times. "Did you feel...different?"

She scrunched up her lovely face in confusion. "Um, if by different you mean terrified and grossed out then, yes."

"Did he say anything after that?"

"He said he'd be seeing me again soon, and it was just so weird, like who says that to a complete stranger?"

Cam stopped dead in his tracks. He took her hands in his. "Luce, you need to listen to me right now. Go home. Run there. As fast as you can and don't look back."

Her eyes widenened in shock. "What? Why?"

"Please, just listen to me. Trust me. I'll be home soon. There's something I need to take care of."

She shook her head. "Tell me what's going on."

"I can't, not right now. There's no time. But I promise, I will explain everything when I get home. Please, you have to trust me. You do trust me don't you?"

"With my life," she answered honestly.

He gave her a weak smile and soft peck on the lips. "Go. Now."

* * *

><p>When Cam finally stepped through the door, Luce was furious. She'd been home for hours, waiting for him. "Where have you been?" she demanded. "I've been worried out of my mind."<p>

"I'm fine," he said distantly. "You don't need to worry about me. I can handle myself. It's you that needs protection."

"Protection?" she exclaimed. "From what?"

He gave her a meaningful look. "Luce..." he sighed, shaking his head. "There's so much I need to tell you and I don't even know where to start."

"What do you mean? What are you talking about?" her eyes searched his in confusion, then a knowing look passed across her face. "Is it about that guy?"

"Sort of," Cam cringed, knowing he had to tread lightly. He knew he couldn't tell her too much too fast. "There's more to it than just him."

"I still don't understand any of what you're saying!" she threw her hands up in frustration. "What, do you owe him money or something? Is he like, threatening me? Or you? Or us?" she grabbed for his wrists. "Look, if that's what it is then...then...I'll call my parents. I swore I'd never speak to them again, but I know if I asked for money they'd give it to me, and-"

"_Luce,_" he said, miserably. "That's not it. It's so much worse than that."

She frowned, "Well then what is it, Cam? Tell me, please."

Suddenly, he had an idea. He knew Daniel would be here any minute now. He hadn't been in the store when Cam went back to look for him, so he knew that could only mean one thing. He'd tear this city apart looking for her. He tried to act like he made such a big struggle of trying to stay away from her, but that was a load of crap. He stalked her, was the reality of the situation. And he always found her, in the end. Cam was a fool to let himself think this time would be any different.

"Luce." he said, taking her face in his hands. "Listen to me. I want you to take my keys, take the car, and leave. You need to leave right now."

She sputtered. "W-what? Leave? Where do you want me to go?"

"Anywhere," he said, "As far away from here as possible, as fast as you can. It's not safe for you here, and I know this doesn't make sense to you right now but-"

"No!" She knocked his hands away, tears brimming in her eyes. "No. You promised when you got home you'd explain everything."

"I know," he said, "I know I did. But there just isn't time. And I need you to be safe, Luce. I need that more than anything else in my life."

"I'm safe when I'm with you." she said, "I'm not leaving you. Whatever's wrong, we'll face it together."

"If it were anything else but this, I'd agree with you." he smiled ruefully at her. "I'm just going to need you to trust me."

"You said that before, and I did, and you still haven't told me anything." her voice was thick with tears, "Why should I trust you now?"

"Because you know me," he said, wiping away her tears with his thumbs, "You know your safety is more important to me than anything else."

"What are you going to do?" she asked, incredulously. "If I take the car and just leave, when am I supposed to come back?"

"You're not," he said simply.

She stared at him. "So what, then? You're saying this is the last time we'll ever see each other, just like that?"

He shook his head. "I'll come to you. It might take awhile, a long while, maybe. I'm not going to ask you to wait for me. But I promise, as soon as humanly possible, I'll come to you."

"Of course I'll wait for you, you idiot." she sniffed, "I don't want anyone else but you, ever."

He kissed her, then. A long, passionate kiss that he hoped made up for all he couldn't say.

"Cam," she said his name like a prayer, holding his face in her hands. "Please, don't do this. If you loved me you wouldn't do this."

He let his forehead rest against hers. "I'm doing this because I love you," his voice was almost breaking, "You have to believe that, if you don't believe anything else."

Tears were pooling in her eyes again, her voice was watery and distorted as she choked out, "But I can't live without you."

"Yes, you can." he said firmly. "You're much stronger than you think. I, however, most defintiely refuse to live in a world without you in it. Hence why you need to go. Please, Luce."

"I'm not afraid, you know." she said softly, still fighting at any chance she had to convince him to let her stay. "I don't care whatever it is, who ever it is, that I'm supposed to be afraid of, I'm not."

"I'm done talking about this," he said with an intensity Luce wasn't used to hearing from him. "You have to go. End of discussion."

"You promise you'll come for me?" the raw hope in her voice shattered his heart into a million little pieces. "How will you find me?"

"I promise." he whispered. "I'll find you. Trust me."

She coughed out a bitter laugh. "You keep saying that."

"I know," he said, he took her hand and opened it, pressing his car keys into her palm.

She took the keys, kissed him one last time, and left. And maybe everything would have worked according to Cam's masterplan if she had stayed gone. But, of course, she didn't.


	6. Chapter 6

_**AN: Hi! I know it's been a VERY long time. If you got an alert for this story and don't really remember what's going on, I suggest re-reading at least the chapter before this one to jog your memory. And hello to any new readers that might be stumbling across this story for the first time! Thank you all so much for your readership and your kind words! It means the world to me.**_

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><p>Luce wasn't about to leave the love of her life to face some mysterious danger alone. She never planned to for one moment. She knew how serious he'd been about wanting to keep her safe, and she loved him for it, but she couldn't do what he'd asked of her. He'd be angry, sure, but once whatever this awful thing was was out of the way, they could be together. Happy. Everything would be fine. And it was that kind of naive thinking that got her killed.<p>

What Luce did do was drive about half a mile away, park the car off the road, and sneak back to Cam's house on foot. By the time she got back, the creepy blonde guy was there. Something about him was...strangely familiar, now that Luce got a second look at him as she watched he and Cam talk from a dense spot in the bushes outside Cam's house. She felt her stomach churn, she didn't like the vibe this guy gave her whatsoever. She wondered briefly if she might be psychic when the blonde guy's voice rose, snapping her to attention.

"What the hell did you think you were doing?" He sounded furious.

"What was I supposed to do?" Cam's voice rose to match his. "She didn't have anywhere else to go!"

Luce knew with a sick instinct that they were talking about her. She still didn't understand what this blonde guy had to do with any of it, though. Who was he? Why was he acting like he knew her? Like her whereabouts were any of his business?

"You should have found a way to contact me. Immediately. Or Gabbe, or Arriane, or Roland."

"Oh, you've got Roland on your side now too?" Luce heard her boyfriend scoff, but she could hear genuine hurt in his voice. She'd heard him mention a Roland before. She didn't know much about him. Just that he'd been a friend of Cam's. More like a brother, he'd said. She supposed they'd had a pretty intense falling out. Where did this stranger fit into all this? "Just how many lap dogs do you need, Grigori?"

"Enough of this," The blonde boy, Grigori, growled. "Where is she?"

Luce's eyes widened, knowing with certain dread she was the 'she' he was looking for. What did he _want _with her? Luce knew she'd never met this person before today, but with every second that past she was starting to doubt that more and more. An eerie feeling was building up inside her. It was a bit like deja vu...but...wrong. It was making her sick to her stomach.

"She's long gone by now," Cam's voice sounded so broken, she wanted to run to him, but she stayed glued in her hiding place.

For a moment neither of them said anything, they just stared daggers at each other, both their shoulders tense and pulled back, ready to fight.

Finally, the blonde boy spoke again. "I expected many wicked things of you, Cam. But this..." he shook his head. "This I never saw coming. I still thought of you as my brother-"

"Oh give me a fucking break," Cam spat at him. "You really want to give me the 'I saw her first' speech right now?"

"This isn't about you treating her like your own personal plaything," Grigori said with narrowed eyes. "It's about you putting her in danger."

Cam laughed loudly at that, a note of hysteria in his voice. "Me?" He sputtered incredulously. "_I'm_ putting her in danger? All I was doing was keeping her away from you, which, in case you haven't noticed, is keeping her as safe as she could possibly be."

Now Luce was more confused than ever. This Grigori boy was acting like he knew Luce, and now Cam was acting like it too. All at once she was frightened. She half wished she'd done as Cam instructed and just kept driving. She was in danger. She didn't know how or why or from whom, but she felt it crawling around inside her, filling her with panic.

"You know I like to keep a close eye on her," Grigori's voice was low and what he was saying sickened her. "I like to know where she is. That way I know exactly how to keep my distance."

Cam just shook his head in disbelief. "Right. I'm just going to choose to ignore how twisted that is because we both know it's not true. You can't keep yourself away from her. You never have and you never will."

Grigori advanced on Cam quicker than Luce had ever seen a human move. She wanted to launch herself at him and knock him to the ground, but something was telling her to stay put. That revealing herself would only make things worse. But if this Grigori guy laid a finger on Cam, all bets were off.

"Do not criticize me when you have no idea what it's like to be in my position." Grigori's tone was sharp.

Cam seemed unaffected by the other boy's closeness or demeanor. "You're right," he said smugly. "I have no idea what it's like to be that goddamn selfish."

Grigori reared his arm back but Cam was quicker, grabbing his wrist and twisting his entire arm around with a sickening crunch. Luce pressed her hand over her mouth in shock. She knew Cam was much stronger than his lean frame suggested, and he'd even taught her some basic self defense moves in their time together, but this was different. Inhuman. The speed at which he pinned Grigori to the ground, his knees pressing down on his back, was faster than Luce could comprehend. What were they, ex-ninja-assassins or something?

"And just for the record," Cam's tone was light, like holding the struggling boy in place underneath him was no sweat, "I wasn't treating her like my own personal plaything. I love her. I love her so much that I made sure she got the hell out of here. I don't even know where she is now. I probably won't ever see her again. But it's fucking worth it, because it means she's safe. She's alive. She'll meet someone else, get married, have kids, and live a long, happy life. I don't need to stalk her every waking moment to know that. And if you could, for one second, see that if you just-"

Before Luce could even blink, Grigori had rolled out from under Cam's grip, growling as he did so. There was a violent, feral quality to his movements. Something terrible was about to happen, she could feel it. And she didn't know what to do. Her heart thudded in her chest. She still had no idea what was going on. All she knew was that this Grigori person seemed to know her...to be obsessed with her for whatever reason. He'd basically admitted to stalking her. And Cam must have known that, since Cam knew this person. Did that mean Cam knew who she was all that time ago, when they'd first met? Was he working with this guy? Supposed to turn her into him but ended up keeping her for himself instead? No. She couldn't believe that. She refused to. It was true that she really didn't know who Cam was before she met him, but she knew deep down inside he was nothing but goodness and light. She'd never felt so safe as when she was with him. He loved her. And she loved him. And nothing this creepy stalker said or did could ever change that.

And then Grigori's back split open, and out from underneath his skin burst an enormous pair of silvery white wings.

Luce's entire body went rigid. She opened her mouth to scream, but no sound came out. She simply stared in silent horror as the wings rippled back away from the boy's body and flung out to his sides. He crouched down into a fighting stance. _Oh God_, Luce's brain repeated over and over, _Oh God, Oh God, Oh God. _Something about this...about all of this...it was like she'd...seen it before. Or known it was coming. And now that it was here she knew nothing good could ever happen again. She wished she could rewind time. Go back to this morning, in bed with Cam. She never would have made the suggestion to leave. Everything was over now...and it was all her fault. This boy...monster...whatever he was, was going to kill Cam. And then he was going to kill her. And she couldn't move, couldn't even make a sound. She was useless. She hated herself for it.

Cam spun around, his back facing Luce, and his back split open just the same as Grigori's had, revealing a pair of large, deadly looking black wings, flecked with gold. And Luce found that she could make a sound, after all. She screamed.

Both boys turned around sharply at the sound, their eyes narrowing in on the bush Luce was hiding behind. Her survival instincts finally kicking in, she turned around and bolted.

"Lucinda?" she heard Grigori call after her. "Lucinda, wait!"

"Let her go!" That was Cam. "Daniel, stop!"

The shrubbery grew denser into trees as Luce ran, she didn't stop to think about where she was going, she just knew she needed to get away as fast as possible. She could still hear them calling her name. She hurtled herself through the dark trees, faster than she'd even run in her life. Everything started to blend together, it was too dark to see. She was going to die soon, she could feel it. There was no way out. Her breath coming in short, tight gasps, she started to panic. Tears welled up in her eyes. There was nowhere to run, she realized that now. It was like being in a nightmare. A branch snapped with finality behind her. She gasped and spun around, the blonde boy with with silver wings...Grigori...Daniel...whatever his name was...standing only inches in front of her.

She stumbled backward, tears welling up in her eyes. "P-please," she gasped out. "Don't..."

She didn't even know what she should beg for. Her own life? Cam's? The rest of the world's?

"Lucinda," the boy's voice was tender as his eyes traveled slowly up her body, "I've missed you."

Bile rose in her throat. It hadn't occurred to her until this moment that maybe murder wasn't the only thing she had to fear. She shook her head, tears falling freely now. "Who _are _you?" she whispered. "How do you know me?"

"I've always known you," he said cryptically, "And you've always known me."

She scoffed, fear dissipating into anger. Her life was about to end at the hands of this psychopath and he couldn't even answer a simple question? No use playing nice, then.

"I realize I'm a bit outmatched," Luce gestured to the boy's wings. "But I'm going to make this as hard on you as possible." She crouched down and put her fists up in a defensive starting position, like Cam had taught her. _Cam_. His name cut through her. What part was he playing in all this? And where was he now?

The boy merely smirked at her. "You think I want to fight you, Lucinda?"

"I know you want to kill me."

His smile fell. He looked wounded, like she'd hurt him. "No." He said after a long moment. "I don't."

"Sensing a 'but' in there, somewhere." Luce remarked dryly, keeping her position steady just in case he was planning some sort of sneak attack. He simply looked away, as if he were ashamed. At least she could see him and wouldn't have to worry about being rushed from behind. Unless Cam...

Her heart squeezed painfully. Where was he? Was he with this guy or against him? All signs Luce had seen so far pointed to the latter. But after what she'd just witnessed Luce wasn't sure what to believe anymore.

"Where is Cam?" Luce finally asked, keeping any note of emotion out of her voice.

He turned and looked at her sharply. "What's he done to you?"

"Nothing."

"Something," he argued, shaking his head. "You're not the Lucinda I know. You're different."

"And you're not anyone I know." Luce said, "And you've got me cornered in a dark forest fighting for my life, so I think I win the sympathy card this time around."

"See?" He looked bewildered. "That's what I mean. How you move, how you speak, how you react. It's all different. You're different. He's ruined you."

"_Ruined_ me?" Luce's eyebrows shot up. "What, you mean like puritanically ruined? Actually, we hadn't gotten to that just yet. But we were working our way up to it."

The boy just stared at her, like he suddenly had no idea who she was. Finally, a shred of normalcy in all this.

"Do you love him?" He asked her, his voice hollow.

_I thought I did_, was Luce's first reaction. But she knew in her heart that no matter what she'd seen tonight, there was no question about it. She met his eyes and answered evenly, "Yes."

He looked sucker punched. He shook his head again. "It's not possible."

She tensed, anticipating his advance, putting her fists up higher.

"You love me, Lucinda." he said, "You've always loved me."

"I don't even know who you are," Luce insisted, but her heart was hammering now. The world was shifting around her, like she was slowly remembering bits and pieces of a dream.

"Yes you do," he told her softly. "You know who I am. It's-"

"Daniel." The voice came from directly behind Luce. It was a voice she could have recognized anywhere.

She spun around, the cold air smacking against the dried tears on her face, and looked into the face of the boy she loved. Even in this hellish nightmare come to life, the sight of him was a comfort. Messy black hair, deep green eyes, dark plum-colored mouth. _Remember this_, she told herself silently. _Remember everything about this moment. _

Cam didn't look down at her, his eyes were fixed stonily on the boy in front of him. "Luce," he said quietly, "I told you to get out of here."

"I couldn't leave you," she whispered weakly. It sounded so stupid now. So childish. Her bottom lip quivered until she bit it to make it stop.

"There's still time," he said, and Luce wasn't sure if he was addressing her or Daniel.

"No, there isn't." Daniel said. "She's seen too much. It's a miracle she's not dead already."

Luce sucked in her breath. "If I'm going to die," she said, looking back and forth between Daniel and Cam, "then somebody better tell me what is going on."

"You're not going to die," Cam finally met her eyes, "You're going to get the hell out of here. Just like I told you before. And Daniel and I are going to settle this between ourselves."

"Settle what?" Luce asked. "I deserve to know what's happening!"

"You _can't_," Cam's voice was harsher than she'd ever heard it, making her flinch. "Luce, you can't. Please. I'm trying to keep you safe, just please."

"You can't keep her safe," Daniel said tonelessly. "Believe me, Cam. I've tried. It's always the same."

"No," Cam shook his head adamantly. "I can do whatever the hell I want. Quite literally. If she leaves right now-"

"It's too late," Daniel shrugged, his face drawn tight with sorrow.

"No it isn't!" Cam roared, his wings flushing out fiercely behind him. "That's your problem, Grigori. You're always so damn eager to give up. You just let it happen."

"How dare you say that to me?" Daniel was disgusted. "After all I've been through. After what you've seen me go through? How can you look me in the face and say that?"

"Because it's true," Cam gritted through his teeth. "Just admit it. You couldn't leave her alone if your own life depended on it. Much less hers. Those few precious moments you get with her each time. That's all you care about."

Luce's eyes flicked to Daniel, who looked like an animal ready to pounce. She knew was Cam was doing. He was distracting him. He wanted him to attack. So that Luce would have time to run. To get away. An intense wave of emotion crashed over her. He was still trying to save her.

Unfortunately, Daniel didn't take the bait. He knew Cam too well. And after a moment of letting his rage simmer, he simply said, "Alright, fine."

Crickets chirped obliviously away in the distance.

"Fine?" Cam asked.

"You think you're the expert? Go for it." Daniel backed away spreading his arms out in a gesture of surrender. "You think you can cheat the system? She's all yours. You want her? Take her."

"Whatever you're trying to do, Grigori-"

"I'm not trying to do anything," Daniel's tone was light and unaffected. "You clearly know much more about this than I do, so be my guest and take the reins from here. I could really use a day off, you know."

"Cam..." Luce's voice was uncertain, frightened. "What's he talking about?"

"You preach from a high mountain, Cameron, but look at yourself. You can't let her go, either." Daniel shook his head. "You might have let her think that, tell her to go off somewhere and start a new life without you. But you'd be doing exactly the same thing I do. Find her. Watch her. Just to make sure she's safe. That's how it always starts. Except for the times when she finds you. Those are much worse. Because those you can trick yourself into justifying as not your fault. But it always is. Every time. Every time you think it will be different. This time I'll keep my distance, this time I won't make the same mistakes as last time. But the one thing I've learned in my endless existence is that there are always new mistakes to make."

The world started to bend and shift around Luce again. Her eyelids fluttered closed for a moment, she felt unsteady on her feet. Her cheeks and forehead felt hot, like a sudden oncoming fever had just begun to kindle inside her.

"Real nice sob story, Grigori." Cam said, "But you're forgetting a key element here. I'm not cursed."

"Aren't you?" Daniel raised his eyebrows.

"I'm damned," Cam's wings seemed to flex as he spoke, "There's a difference."

"Prove you're better than me," Daniel challenged. "Let her go. I won't stop you."

"Luce and I could be together in a way that the two of you never can," Cam said, his tone the polar opposite of what it was before. "We've already been together all this time. We've been happy. We can be happy."

"That's what you think," Daniel smiled knowingly. "But you're wrong."

Luce was sweating now. Something was wrong. She was struggling to hold herself upright. The boys continued to argue in front of her, not even noticing as she swayed on her feet. Flashes of images blinked rapidly in and out of her mind. She tried to shake it off, steady herself, but that only made the feeling intensify. Where was she? She breathed hard, looked around. Forest. Boys. Wings. Daniel. Cam. Cam. Oh, Cam. Cam, who she loved so much. He was so good, so wonderful, so perfect. He was an angel.

An angel.

An angel?

Everything spun.

"-you could have scooped her up and flown away with her at any moment!" That was Daniel's voice cutting through the noise in Luce's head. "Gotten her far, far away from me. That was the plan, right? But you didn't. Because you knew you couldn't risk frightening her, couldn't risk losing her-"

"I wanted her to be safe," Cam was able to match the ferocity in Daniel's tone without even raising his voice, "And I wanted to accomplish that without leaving her scarred for the rest of her life, forgive me."

"I may be selfish," Daniel countered, "but at least I can admit it. You, you're a hypocrite."

"I'm not the same as you," Cam said. His voice was helpless, "I love her."

"So do I," Daniel scoffed. "It doesn't make a difference."

"It does when we can be together."

"But you can't."

"Yes, we can."

Luce made a strangled noise that finally got their attention, just as her knees gave out and she crumpled to the ground. The heat inside her body was unbearable. She felt as if she were burning from the inside out. "C..." she tried to speak, her voice dry and hoarse. "Cam."

"Luce!" She felt the weight of both boys drop in front of her. "Don't touch her!" Cam shouted at Daniel. "What did you do?"

"Nothing!" Daniel shouted back, sounding just as shocked as Cam. "I don't...I don't know what's happening. It's never been like this before."

It didn't come to her in a dreamy montage of images, like she'd seen in movies. The memories, that is. They simply just existed, all of a sudden, right there in her head. As if they'd never been gone at all. Only this time around, things hadn't happened the way they were supposed to. And she didn't know why. Why had she found Cam instead of Daniel? Why had she fallen in love with him? Why did she love him still? And why was she dying like this?

"She's not dying," Cam's voice was panicked. "She can't be. Not like this. It doesn't happen like this. I don't understand."

Luce felt a hand on her forehead. "She's burning up, Cam."

"What?!"

"Inside." Daniel sounded far away now. "Fever."

She was in someone's arms. Cam's. Being lifted.

"What are you doing?"

"Taking her to hospital." Cam said. "They can fix her there."

"Cam, she's-"

"Shut up," Cam barked, launching himself from the ground and taking flight. "It's not too late."

But it was. By the time Cam landed a safe distance away from the nearest hospital, Lucinda Price was dead.

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><p>"What were the numbers again, Cam?" Daniel asked after he'd finished. "Was it one fifteen, one sixteen?"<p>

"One twenty," Cam answered after a moment. "The doctors said the fever had reached one hundred and twenty degrees Fahrenheit at its peak. They'd never seen anything like it before."

Daniel winced dramatically before looking back at Luce. "And there you have it. Cameron Briel's dirty little secret."

Luce felt like she'd been gutted. All the while Daniel told her this story she'd wanted Cam to get angry, to deny it, to say he was making things up or embellishing. But he'd just stayed quiet, his head bowed, and in her heart Luce knew it was all true. Which meant...all that time Cam had been bad mouthing Daniel, giving her a hard time about still loving him after he'd killed her over and over again...he'd been keeping this from her. And if everything Daniel had told her was true, that meant...Cam had killed her too?

"We still don't know why or how it happened," Cam's voice was soft. "Though Grigori certainly has his theories. That it's somehow all my fault, obviously."

Luce bit her lip, ashamed her mind had already gone to the exact same place.

"I thought I would die from the guilt of it," Cam said, staring out into the night. "I wanted to."

"And I wanted to kill him," Daniel said breezily, "But I could see how much pain he was in and knew letting him live with that would be so much more satisfying."

Luce was angry, with both of them. With Cam, of course, for keeping something so horribly important from her for so long. And with Daniel, for the way he was acting. It was like holding this over Cam meant more to him than her own feelings. It wasn't the Daniel she knew.

"We thought you might be gone forever," Cam's voice broke on the last word. "We'd never seen you die like that. We never told anyone else. I tried to tell myself it was a good thing. At least it was over. You wouldn't have to relive it all again."

"But lo and behold," Daniel sounded weary now. "Seventeen years later, like clockwork. There you were."

"I stayed away after that," Cam finally looked at Luce. "Just in case you were wondering."

"Not for too long," Daniel reminded him, gesturing between Luce and Cam. "I told you, Cam. You're no better than me."

Cam shook his head. "It's a completely different situation, I-"

"Stop it!" Luce shouted at them, "Both of you! God, just listen to yourselves! You sound like children fighting over a toy."

"Luce," Cam's eyes were pained, "No. Please-"

At the same time, Daniel was advancing toward her, his arms outstretched. She shoved him away. "Back off."

He snorted. "Always. She starts spending time with you," he looked to Cam sharply, "and starts acting like this."

"Like what, exactly?" Cam wanted to know. "Her own person?"

"I'm going to bed." Luce said, shrugging and backing away. "You two can stay out here all night for all I care. Just leave me out of it. And leave me alone."

She turned her back on them and forced herself to keep her shoulders back, her gait strong, her head forward. At least then they wouldn't be able to see her cry.

"You see?" Daniel turned to Cam, shaking his head at his 'brother'. Cam only glared in response. "Always new mistakes to make."


End file.
